As the school year draws to a close, the Irish are in the unofficial portion of the calendar. Yet that’s the time -- through the guidance of strength and conditioning coach Paul Longo, that leadership usually emerges.
Watching Brian Kelly’s teams evolve, you get the idea that when Kelly says his team develops at its own pace, he isn’t kidding. Kelly’s first team didn’t have a locked in set of leaders, instead they named game captains, sharing the leadership responsibilities. In Kelly’s second season, he named Michael Floyd and Harrison Smith to be the team’s leaders, only before Floyd was stripped of his captaincy after a spring DUI arrest got him suspended indefinitely.
Last year’s team benefited from a strong leadership group -- veterans Manti Te’o and Kapron Lewis-Moore led the defense, while Zack Martin and Tyler Eifert led the offense. Four team captains were the most in the Kelly era, and add in the strong group of veterans that surrounded these four and you begin to understand one of the factors in how this team played better than expected.
Kelly talked a little bit about leadership during his Town Hall meeting with Tim Brown. The hour question and answer session sponsored by SiriusXM radio, Kelly didn’t touch on anything all that new, but he did discuss the ongoing development of the 2013 team.
While he may not be named a captain, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see quarterback Everett Golson emerge as one of the team’s leaders. He’s the unquestioned pilot of the offense, and while Zack Martin returns as a captain, Golson has certainly taken huge strides forward after a redshirt freshman season saw him struggle at times to survive.
“I’ve seen a maturity level. He benefits from smelling the air on Notre Dame’s campus,” Kelly told Brown. “Just growing up, seeing that maturation take place. We know he has talent. It’s never been an issue of that. But it’s how he deals with the game and all of the demands.”
On the defensive side of the ball, finding replacements as team captain will be interesting. The Irish lost the leader of every unit they had -- with Jamoris Slaughter and Zeke Motta exiting the secondary, Manti Te’o gone from the linebackers, and Lewis-Moore now with the Baltimore Ravens.
It’s a process that Kelly is happy to let play out throughout the summer.
“Leadership is the area that we’ve been working on from a defensive standpoint,” Kelly said. “I think it’s letting that leadership develop and guys stepping up.”
Not that the defense is without leaders. One name that’ll likely get some attention is cornerback Bennett Jackson. The senior has played the last two seasons with his shoulder in a harness, gutting out an impressive first year starting and looking primed for a breakout year in 2013. You should also add Louis Nix to that list. Sure, the senior is a guy that’s a total wild card, but his teammates love him and he’s one of the dominant players in college football. While the staff has marveled at Te’o replacement Jarrett Grace, a guy like Dan Fox has played a lot of games and has the ear of his teammates.
As we approach the long abyss before we start focusing on next year, there’s developmental work being done. It may not be things we see, but it’s a huge factor in determining the fate of the 2013 squad.