Notre Dame - Miami. It may not be the blood feud it was 20 years ago, but the match-up certainly lights up the marquee. And with a stage as unique as Soldier Field and in a city like Chicago, there’s plenty of luster left in a game that might not mean what it once did, but still is a headline grabber.
“We understand the history of this ball game,” Manti Te’o said this week. “But we also understand the importance of being ourselves and not buying in to the whole hype of a rivalry game.”
As we prepare for No. 9 Notre Dame to take on a young and feisty Miami team that’s 4-1, let’s run through six tidbits, leftovers, fun facts, and miscellaneous musings before the Shamrock Series kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
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1. Despite the whispers, the quarterback job is still Everett Golson’s.
Rumors spread like wildfire across the internet that Brian Kelly, already known for his hair trigger at the quarterback position, was ready to make another big change. Yet when Kelly addressed the media this afternoon, he reaffirmed the news that Everett Golson was still his starting quarterback.
“It’s the same guy who’s been the starter the last four weeks,” Kelly said with a smile. “I thought I made that pretty clear. But Everett will start in Week Five, and I expect him to start in Week Six and Seven and Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen.”
And with that, another (ND) national crisis was averted. The news that Kelly is sticking with Golson is far from shocking, and is a consistent tune for a head coach willing to roll with the punches as he develops his young quarterback.
“He is getting better. There is so much development that’s taking place that’s not on Saturdays,” Kelly said. “It’s coming. We’re not a finished product yet, and I’ve got a guy in Tommy Rees who can come in and help us while we go through this process of learning. I’m comfortable with it. I guess that’s all I can really say, but yes, Everett will start.”
A few evenings after watching two politicians carefully craft statements, Kelly’s comments on Golson come off as more declarative than the two men fighting to be the free world’s leader, but there’s still a sprinkle of ex-politico in Kelly’s statements.
Over the bye week, junior Tommy Rees took a large portion of first team reps at practice. And when asked about the state of the locker room in regards to who the team’s quarterback should be, Kelly carefully picked his words.
“I’m aware of our team and I have the pulse of our football team as it relates to who would be the quarterback,” Kelly said. “I’d feel very comfortable saying that our football team will respond to whatever decision I make. I think I’ve got the trust of our football team that they know that I’m going to do whatever is in the best interest of our football team, to win right now.”
For now, that means Golson will get the chance to go against Miami’s mediocre defense.
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2. It’s time for Notre Dame’s running game to kick into gear.
The Irish offense hasn’t moved the ball as well on the ground as many expected. Slogging their way to just 3.8 yards per carry and a meager 140 yards a game, Kelly discussed the challenges that have come around with changing up schemes.
“It hasn’t been talked a lot about, but we were a heavy gap-pull team last year, and we are much more of an inside-outside zone team this year,” Kelly said. “The reads are very much different for the running back... The idiosyncrasies of it all are really big. I won’t bore you with the details, but I will say it takes more patience and we really focused on that more this week.”
Running back Theo Riddick embodies the run game struggles, leading the team in carries with 63, but averaging only 3.8 yards a tote. While the offensive line certainly hasn’t played up to the level it expects, Riddick has left plenty of yardage on the field with his propensity to cut back against the grain too quickly, unwilling to wait for the outside run to develop.
But after a week off, the Irish might encounter the best slump-buster Chicago has to offer: The Hurricanes defense. Entering Saturday night with the nation’s 115th ranked run defense, Miami will be without starting defensive tackle Olsen Pierre.
And after missing the season’s first two games due to suspension and struggling to find a rhythm against Michigan, expect Cierre Wood to get every chance to seize the starting job on Saturday night. Even struggling, the Irish senior has gone for 5.6 yards a touch, a number that should go up on Saturday.
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3. Even if he wasn’t a wrecking ball on the defensive line, Louis Nix is a guy you want in the middle of anything.
Let’s not let Louis Nix‘s tremendous personality get in the way of the work he does on the field. The junior defensive tackle, at 6-foot-3 and far-more-than-his-listed-326-pounds, is a tremendous key to the Irish’s pass rush against prolific thrower and dangerous runner Stephen Morris. He’s played active, relentless football this season, and his three tackles-for-loss and 1.5 sacks give the Irish a legitimate disruptor at the line of scrimmage that also has the ability to chase down the quarterback.
But leave all that behind, and Nix is still a guy you want to build your team around. If only because you get to listen to wonderful nuggets like these. JJ Stankevitz of CSNChicago.com has plenty more.As Notre Dame’s defense has spurred its 4-0 start, Louis Nix has begun to earn national praise for his work on the interior of the Irish defensive line.
But not everyone is praising his work as a defensive tackle, although that’s because Nix’s little brother, Kenneth, has his older brother’s position mixed up.
“I don’t know where they got quarterback from,” Nix laughed. “My little brother had a presentation for class and he told them I was the quarterback.”
But Nix wasn’t going to leave it at that.
“You know, right about now, I would love to play quarterback,” he continued, in complete deadpan mode. “I think I’d be real good at it, you know, put me in the wildcat. I don’t even want to play running back, though, I want to be a wildcat QB.
“I look like one, huh?” the 326-pound Nix added between bites of a Hershey’s bar.
Nix said all the right things about his evolution as a player, crediting added maturity for his success in South Bend, a place not many in Florida thought made sense for one of Jacksonville’s elite football talents. But he also let his personality shine through, raising more than a few reporters’ eyebrows when addressing his biggest weakness: Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
“If they don’t have it, I get cranky. I don’t want to eat Honey Bunches of Oats. Really? I need something sweet.”
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4. Brian Kelly isn’t shying away from the idea that Manti Te’o is a Heisman candidate. But for as good as he’s been between the lines, he’s been even more impressive off the field.
Linebacker Manti Te’o has already found himself on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And as he continues to fill up the stat sheet as a sideline to sideline tackler and a turnover forcing machine, Brian Kelly has no problem pushing Te’o’s candidacy for the Heisman Trophy, college football’s most prestigious award.
“I’ve said this from day one,” Kelly said. “What is the definition of a Heisman Trophy candidate? If you go with he has to be a quarterback or an offensive player, well, I don’t think he plays on offense. But if you’re looking for one of the best, if not the best college football players that impacts your program‑‑ look, if you said it was the MVP, does it have to be an offensive player MVP? Sure. He’s got to have some offensive numbers or statistics. But you’re also judged by how you impact your team and what you do on the defensive side of the ball.”
But more importantly, Te’o’s ability to play excellent football at a time of severe duress is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever witnessed from a student athlete. More important, he’s shown his teammates -- college kids that play a rough and tumble game -- that it’s okay to show vulnerability during a time of need, as he’s opened himself up to his teammates and community during this difficult time.
Te’o spent over 40 minutes with the assembled media this week, an unprecedented amount of time for a single player, let alone the Irish head coach. He was emotional, honest, humble, candid, and strong. He was the perfect example of what any athlete should strive to be.
If you’ve got the time, it’s the best performance Te’o has ever had representing Notre Dame, on or off the field.
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5. Notre Dame’s roster management is beginning to take shape.
The biggest personnel news to come out of South Bend was the decision to redshirt running back Amir Carlisle for the season. The sophomore running back, who transferred from USC to Notre Dame during the offseason, had received an NCAA waiver exemption to play this season. But after breaking his ankle in the days leading to spring practice, Carlisle was slow to return to health, and he’ll sit out the year, with three full seasons of eligibility remaining.
“We’re going to redshirt Amir. He will not play this year,” Kelly said. “He’s made close to the kind of recovery that we were hoping when we saw some really good things from him. We don’t want to waste him now.”
The news comes the same week as the Irish announced sophomore defensive end Chase Hounshell will also sit out the rest of the season, with season-ending shoulder surgery allowing Hounshell to save a year of eligibility and still have three seasons left. That extra year of eligibility will come in handy with a guy like Stephon Tuitt looking like he might not need four years of college football.
Just like in Hounshell’s case, the decision to hold Carlisle out, a dynamic player that I expected to fight his way into the two-deep at running back, helps for the long term growth of this football team.
“He’s really close and to try to fit him in in week five or six and use up another year for a half season wasn’t prudent in my mind,” Kelly said. “So we’re going to shut him down, put him on scout team, let him be a great guy over there and let our defense prepare, and then have him back for three seasons of competition.”
After watching Charlie Weis butcher the use of redshirts, Kelly’s understanding of the strategic elements should be a welcome sight for Notre Dame fans. Keeping Carlisle protects Notre Dame in case Cierre Wood wants to test the NFL waters. Keeping an extra year of Hounshell gives the Irish some protection on the front line in life after Tuitt.
As we head to the middle of the season, Kelly’s also looking at other young players that might also be able to save a highly valued year of eligibility.
“We’re getting close to that. We’re not there yet,” Kelly said. “We’ve got a make a decision up to game six and you can’t play in more than three games. So we’ve got a couple of guys on the bubble for the next couple of weeks where we’ll have to make some decisions.”
It might have been painful, but injuries to guys like Lo Wood and Austin Collinsworth help slow down the eligibility clock of guys that are racing through their collegiate career. And while we’ve seen youngsters like Romeo Okwara and Ronnie Stanley, perhaps there’s a method to Kelly’s madness and a plan to extend the careers of some young Irish players, while also getting them valuable on-the-field experience.
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6. It might not be Catholics vs. Convicts, but Notre Dame vs. Miami still means an awful lot.
There isn’t a player on the Irish roster that’s old enough to remember the bitter rivalry between Notre Dame and Miami. After Jimmy Johnson‘s 58-7 beating of Notre Dame all but ended the Gerry Faust era, the rivalry turned into the Hatfields and McCoys in 1987, with the Irish splitting the series 2-2 over the next four years, including one of the greatest victories Notre Dame has ever had in its 31-30 win over the ‘Canes in 1988.
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While it took 20 years to renew the rivalry, it still matters, as director Billy Corben, filmmaker behind the terrific ESPN documentary “The U” notes.
“Literally, national championships were on the line,” Corben reminisced with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “Every call mattered. Every play mattered. In 1988 in particular. Of course you had the tunnel fight that year as well. Similar things started to happen with a lot of teams from that era like the University of Florida wanted to stop playing Miami.
“I liked that there was a genuine lack of respect for each other. I appreciated that because in those days it was the WWF, the fake wrestling. So this was real. These were real kids and they really wanted to literally take each other’s heads off.
“It was just a real visceral and profound quality to the rivalry that got you really, really pumped. You’d feel your pulse and your pulse would go up. You were genuinely excited about the whole thing. Who was going to win? How were we going to get robbed? And we’re going to kick their a** before, after and during the game.”
Those sentiments are certainly echoed by many Irish fans that I’ve had the pleasure of talking to this week. And after the Irish embarrassed Miami in the 2010 Sun Bowl -- a game that saw Hurricanes players take refuge next to heaters are hide behind face warmers in the brisk El Paso weather -- the team’s might not be the national contenders they once were, but there’s still an edge to this game.
“The teams aren’t quite at that level, so the excitement isn’t quite at that level anymore,” Corben said. “That being said, I hope we destroy them.”
Spoken like a true Miami fan.