Apologies to those worried about the Irish losing momentum with a bye week interrupting their four-game winning streak, but it’s never seem to hurt Brian Kelly. The Irish head coach is 12-1 coming out of an off week in his head coaching career, and the break comes at a perfect time for the Irish after six straight games against physically demanding opponents.
Kelly talked about what’s made his teams so successful after a week off.
“I think the utilization of bye weeks is really twofold,” Kelly said. “One, is mentally you’ve got to get your players some rest. It’s not just physical. Everybody seems to think it’s the physical element. These guys are in in a pretty good place.
“I’ve always felt it’s the mental end of things that you look for, both for your players and your coaches. That’s important as well. The second thing is to do a good job self scouting. In other words, what are you doing, what have you done the first six weeks, what are your areas that you can maybe break tendencies, maybe change some things up in terms of what you’re doing on offense, defense and special teams. I’ve always looked at the mental health of your football team. And then internally how you can maybe break some tendencies.”
Mentally, it gives a group of young contributors like Aaron Lynch, Stephon Tuitt, Ishaq Williams and Troy Niklas a chance to go home and see their families. It also gives the Irish a chance to heal up, with Manti Te’o nursing a tweaked ankle and Sean Cwynar getting the cast removed from his hand.
For Cwynar, it’s a reprieve at a perfect time, with the Irish likely hoping to shut down the Trojans’ running attack from their base defense.
“His cast came off today. He felt like a new man out there today,” Kelly said. “So he’s able to get back in there. He’s got to be able to use his hands. He wasn’t able to control both gaps. He feels really good.”
With today the final day of practice for the week, the extra time gives the Irish coaching staff a chance to hit the recruiting trail and add a few wrinkles into the game plan for the Trojans. It also gives the players a mental break in the midst of a strenuous time on the academic calendar.
“We’ve worked hard to make sure their classes have been taken care of and of course as you know a lot of them are exams, a lot of them are able to get out of here,” Kelly said.
***
Here’s more from Kelly wrapping up Air Force.
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- 808raiderinparadise - Oct 12, 2011 at 2:52 PM
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Ok. Good update, thank you.
I really think the Irish have to start punishing opponents the rest of the way out. They must be more physical and more sound in execution. The players are there, the talent is there, the scheme is there, the coaches are all around them too. No more excuses for me, they already had the two emotional let downs in games 1 & 2 respectively, its time to wipe the remaining schedule and be BCS bound. Stanford, USC, Navy, tough games, but this team has more talent than all of them. Even Wake Forest and Maryland are tough tests, but its time to prove yourselves Notre Dame. It’s time to produce rather than look for an excuse.
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- gilessm - Oct 12, 2011 at 3:52 PM
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Looks like Ishaq Williams will not be going home after all. http://www.southbendtribune.com/sports/collegesports/notredame/sbt-notre-dame-football-williams-will-work-through-bye-20111011,0,2646447.story
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- Jennifer - Oct 12, 2011 at 5:15 PM
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Thanks, Gilessm, for posting the interesting SBT article. Ishaq William’s decision to stay on campus to continue work on his game over the Fall break seems representative of this team’s dedication. More and more with every week, it seems the players’ motivation genuinely comes from an intense and internal combination of focus and desire. In the first two games, they seemed to play scared. I could be off on this, but can’t help wonder if : (1) – Kelly backed off a bit, or (2) -if he had it right all-along and the player’s “got it,” or (3) something else altogether.
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- notredamegrad - Oct 13, 2011 at 11:59 AM
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Jennifer, I see the players “playing scared” in the USF games once every possible thing started going wrong (starting with the strip on J. Gray, but really taking off after the second failed trip to the red zone) and Kelly started very explicitly expressing his frustration. It’s hard to explain how so much could go wrong in that game without that psychological element.
I’m not sure I see them playing scared after that, though, with the exception maybe of the DBs in the fourth quarter against Michigan and Rees against Pitt (he was completing less that 50% of his passes until the last drive and had fumbled the ball after getting sacked – didn’t look comfortable at all and only led a genuine TD drive in those last minutes of the game). I think that if Kelly “backed off,” it would be _because_ his players “got it,” not the other way around. But I’m not sure “backing off” describes a shift in this season so far – if anything, “stepping up” does. It helps that the last three teams we played had very poor defenses – that put a spark in the offense and gave them a chance to see how things are supposed to run. MSU was the key game of the first half of the season so far, for me, because ND played totally superior to a very good team.
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- tradertrik - Oct 12, 2011 at 4:42 PM
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This has got nothin’ to do with nuthin’ but I was watching the Convicts vs Catholics, last years USC game (hadn’t seen any of that game before. Another reason living in ‘bama sucks) and I’m just jacked up about our coming possibilities. Watching last week made me think that we may actually be back as a complete football team and I, for one, can’t wait for the USC game. Go Irish!
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- fredshaheen - Oct 12, 2011 at 5:57 PM
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Here is a link to a short warm up-Go Irish!
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- tradertrik - Oct 13, 2011 at 3:01 PM
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Fun, huh? Sure beats 101 posts second guessing Kelly’s coaching decisions. Go Irish!!!!!
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- irisheyesinsd - Oct 13, 2011 at 1:12 AM
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Anyone else having problems viewing video content on the und.com website? For some reason when I click on the videos, it takes me to the /allaccess but the screen is blank and the videos do not play. Does anyone have a solution? I am suffering withdrawal symptoms and need a fix!!
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- gilessm - Oct 13, 2011 at 11:05 AM
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Sorry, irisheyesinsd. I tried the videos today (11am EST) and they all worked fine. Perhaps you were trying to access them during a downtime in the system?
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- notredamegrad - Oct 13, 2011 at 11:49 AM
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irisheyesinsd, if they’re still not working for you, you can always watch the ICON videos directly on YouTube (as well as the lower-budget but equally behind-the-scenes “Our Team, Our Story” videos).
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- jerseyshorendfan1 - Oct 13, 2011 at 11:22 AM
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I have to admit that, in recent years, I would cringe a little when looking at the schedule and seeing the SC game coming up. This year is different. I do agree with tradertrik that we may actually have a complete team now and, more importantly, one that appears to be hitting its stride. I think we have to worry a little bit about Barkley, so getting pressure will be key, which will also hold down Griffin’s production and maybe produce some positive turnovers for us. Their backers seem small to me compared to prior years and with our O line clicking, I think we will be able to effectively run the ball on them. Can’t wait to see the Irish destroy them next Sat night. I hope its the second win of a long winning streak for us. Go Irish beat USuCk.
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- alsatiannd - Oct 13, 2011 at 12:06 PM
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Like a good team, I take our games one game at a time, so I’m only now looking at USC. I’m not impressed. They have no signature wins and a weak running game. USC can put points on the board, but so have their opponents (except Minnesota who they barely beat). Their one loss was by 3 touchdowns to ASU. ASU is a Top 20 team. That’s our marker. We need to beat USC and thump ‘em good.
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- jerseyshorendfan1 - Oct 13, 2011 at 11:26 AM
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Sorry, meant Woods not Griffin.
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- 1historian - Oct 13, 2011 at 6:35 PM
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This is a good team. Not great but good and getting better every week.
USC will be tough but so is ND. In previous years we would hope that SC would screw up somehow and some way we could squeeze out a win.
Not any more – ND SHOULD win – Barkley can’t hurt us if he spends the afternoon running for his life or staring up at the late October Indiana nighttime sky.
Navy, Wake Forest, Maryland, B.C. – ND will be favored in all of them and should win.
But ND will not be BACK until they go against a team that will be favored – even better if it’s on that team’s home turf and BEAT them. Not squeeze out a lucky win – BEAT THEM. Leave NO doubt which is the better team.
Last year Stanford kicked them all over the field in front of God and everybody while Jim Harbaugh egged them on. It was humiliating, and if there is a better way and place to announce to the football watching world that ND is BACK I sure as hell don’t know what it is.
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- 1historian - Oct 13, 2011 at 6:36 PM
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Correction – for ‘afternoon’ please insert ‘evening’.
Whoops
