Before Brian Kelly turned his focus to No. 10 Michigan State, the head coach succinctly wrapped up the Irish’s fairly unimpressive 20-17 victory over Purdue.
“Collectively as a team, we did not play our best football,” Kelly said. “There’s a higher standard for the way we should play offensively, defensively. But again, I will tell you that any time you beat a Big Ten opponent, you’re pleased with the outcome. I told our team this: Winning is not easy, and we found a way to win the football game. But we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
You can watch the entirety of the press conference below, but here are a few things that stuck out to me.
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Each opponent brings along its own specific challenge. With Michigan State, it’s pretty clear that after two seasons, Kelly knows what to expect.
“I think the team that can control the football, minimize the turnovers, is going to be the team that has the best chance to win,” Kelly said. “So if Michigan State can exert their will on both fronts, the offensive line and defensive line, I think we probably know how that game is going to go. We felt like we have to be able to exert our same kind of presence on both sides of the ball and then do all of the other things that require you to win.
“I think that we know playing at Michigan State and playing them last year, it’s going to come down to a couple of plays and it probably will this year, as well. I think our focus has strictly been on each and every play to make a difference in the game, as evidenced in 2010.”
Both teams are trotting out fairly raw quarterbacks. After two weeks, it appears Everett Golson has the upperhand on Andrew Maxwell, who threw three interceptions against Boise State before righting the ship in the Spartan’s easy victory over Central Michigan. Kelly gave his assessment of Golson’s play after two weeks.
“I think he’s a work‑in‑progress. He’s somebody that’s had two starts,” Kelly said. “He was on scout team at this time last year. He continues to get better. We expect him to start and finish the game. We don’t go into the week with any thoughts other than he’s going to start it and he’s going to finish for us.”
To that point, Kelly spoke more pointedly about removing Golson from the field when the Irish were in their two-minute offense late in the game. After a second half of largely ineffective offense and a playclock that seemed to be getting away from the young quarterback, Kelly talked about the process of playing quarterback, not just the physical act -- which Golson has done quite well.
“Some of it is housekeeping if you will,” Kelly said. “Getting the play, getting it communicated, all of those things, which he is learning. And he’s seeing it for the first time. He’s look at it and he’s going, ‘wow, it took me seven seconds to actually get up there, maybe I need to speed up -- I call it housekeeping. Getting the play, verbalizing it, getting everybody set, making sure everybody is set.
“I’d rather be doing that than worry about whether my quarterback has the ability to play the position.”
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After having many people worry about a young and unseasoned Irish secondary, the Irish went and held the Purdue passing game below 200 yards, a nice afternoon against two veteran signal callers. When asked what he expected to see out of his defense after a shaky opening performance against Navy, Kelly sounded confident that he knew what he had in cornerbacks Bennett Jackson and KeiVarae Russell.
“I wasn’t panicked,” Kelly said after reviewing the team’s performance against Navy. “We were in some option defenses that stressed us and put some guys in positions that normally they wouldn’t be in. We felt very comfortable going into the Purdue week that we were going to play the kind of pass defense necessary. Bennett came up with a couple interceptions. KeiVarae played solid football. We got good play from Elijah Shumate, who broke up a third down conversion opportunity. Matthias Farley had to play a ton of football when Jamoris went down. All in all, we were pleased with their development, but we were confident that as we continue to progress, and they are going to get better and they are not there yet, but we feel like they are the right guys for us and they are going to get the job done.”
Kelly also praised the work safety Zeke Motta did, running the back end of a defense filled with incredibly raw players after Slaughter went out.
“Zeke Motta was outstanding,” Kelly said. “Not only does he have to get himself in the right place, but you have to get three other guys lined up, as well.”
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Kelly talked about getting a better performance out of his offensive line. While Mike Golic Jr. seems to be taking the brunt of the criticism for his play against All-American Kawann Short, the entire line needed to do a better job against a physical front, and Kelly admitted that the staff needed to put the players in a better position to succeed.
“We were not in a great position to run the football most of the time. I think in retrospect we could have done a better job as a staff and finding ways to just lock some runs in there and get after it,” Kelly said. “But clearly we are going to have to play better up front against Michigan State. Our guys are capable. We still feel like we have a very, very good group. We did get beat on some individual moves but again, we think that as a group, and I know coach Harry Hiestand believes that, that this group together can get the job done at a high level for us.”
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On a personnel news, it appears the Irish got nothing but good news on the injury front. While wide receiver Davaris Daniels was in a protective boot over the weekend helping his ankle heal, the Irish should be all hands on deck this Saturday night, and will also welcome Danny Spond back to the fold, perfect timing as the Irish preparing to play a lot of defense where both Spond and Ben Councell will be utilized playing the ‘Dog’ linebacker.
“I think the big addition would be Danny Spond. He’s been cleared to practice today, which should clear up that drop position for us a lot better,” Kelly said. “We can go back to our original plan of Councell and Spond at the drop position. And that would be the hope moving forward that we are able to stabilize that dropped position with Danny.”
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