Notre Dame Football: Highlights From Today’s Brian Kelly Press Conference.
Here are the highlights from Brian Kelly’s press conference today.
Must Read: Things To Keep An Eye On During Spring Practice
"“Our mission is to graduate our players and to play for championships,” Kelly said in his opening statement."
“Competition is very important. There’s a winner and there’s a loser in everything that we do. We clearly understand that, but I’m less interested in those things and more interested in continuing the process of developing these traits within the football team,” said Kelly.
When addressing the depth chart, Kelly made it clear that he’s looking to focus on certain traits more so than who’s starting, at this point.
“Getting caught up in who’s the rover, Who’s the buck, who’s the drop, that will sort itself out. If you get caught up in that in 15 practices and lose sight of who can pay attention to detail.”
“Who’s got winning habits that’s going to show up for you in the fourth quarter. Who’s got that grit that you need to come up with to stop a drive. Those are more important to me than getting a pecking order at the rover position.”
He then spoke about the deeper focus on improving the tempo of their offense.
“We need to keep pushing the tempo within our offensive structure and I believe that we’ll be able to do that.”
Kelly was asked about injuries.
“I’m very optimistic.”
Here’s what he had to say about Shaun Crawford (achilles).
“He’s jumping, his change of direction, I think you’re going to see him extremely active in the spring. I don’t see him taking contact at this time., but he won’t be cheated this spring. He’s going to really use spring as a opportunity for him to continue to grow as a football player.”
Nick Watkins update (broken arm).
“Nick is fully healed. He’ll be in a full situation. I don’t think he’s an issue at all.”
He was very brief about Daniel Cage (concussion) but things sounded positive, which is so important due to his importance in the middle of the defense..
“Cage is good.”
Javon McKinley update (broken tibia).
“Javon has done extremely well moving. Slight limp, very slight, almost not noticeable….He’s so far along too….He’s going to be able to do a lot more than what’s expected so we feel really good about where we are.”
Alize Mack is back.
Here is what Brian Kelly said about how he is guiding him during his return to the program.
“I want him to continue to work hard in school….He’s gotta stay focused. He can’t lose focus on the most important things and he can’t get distracted and that is to graduate and win a championship.”
“(He needs) to stay focused, to pay attention to detail. If he does those two things, he doesn’t have all the traits yet, but if he focuses on those two things, he’s going to have a really good spring because his physical tools are really, really outstanding.”
Kelly addressed the situation of letting Chip Long have full control of the offense.
“Over the last few years, it’s been a committee running the offense. There’s no committee now. There’s one guy that can turn it loose and run it…. I think we’re going back to what I think is the most efficient way to do it, and get out of the way and let Chip run it.”
Kelly was asked about how he is going to prepare his new starting quarterback, Brandon Wimbush. Here’s what he told them:
“What I’m asking him to do are probably more focused on him taking care of himself. We’ve got a lot of good leaders.”
“We’re giving him some more leadership opportunities. i think he’s doing quite well, but we’re not asking him to come in here and lead the entire building.”
“He has to have a presence about him. Body language. He’s got to have confidence in himself. Those are the things that I’m focusing on rather than him having to have control running the entire football program.”
He was also asked about where he is at with assumed back-up quarterback, Ian Book.
“He was offered a full scholarship to Notre Dame and I was a part of the evaluation process. I am a big Ian Book fan. I like the way the ball comes out of his hand. He’s extremely smart. You talk about some of the traits of excellence, he’s got them.”
For full press conference transcript and UND.com, click here
Brian Kelly talked about big changes he’s made regarding getting more involved with the team as a whole. Here’s what he said.
"“93 interviews with the players wanting me to be more with the team.”"
“So, a lot of the things that I’m doing are based on the feedback I got from the players. It allows me to spend and develop a deeper relationship with all of our players. Not just the offensive players, but all the players.”
“A better understanding with who needs more time with me at certain times of the day. So I’m able to coach so many more players on the football team by being more accessible.”
Kelly then spoke about the offensive line battle going into spring practice.
“We want to get a competitive situation over there. Kraemer, Eichenberger, Bivin, all of those guys will get an opportunity.”
“There’s a number of candidates, Tristan Hoge. Jimmy Byrne is going to get in there. He’s looked really good. He’s had his best off season. All of those guys are going to get an opportunity to get out there and compete. I think it’ll take care of itself.”
“We know who our guys are on the left side. I think that Sam (Mustipher) has had a really good 8 weeks as well.”
"“If you’re smarter, if you’ve got an attention to detail, if you’re focused, if you’ve got a great attitude, if you’ve got grit, you’re gonna have a good football team.”"
That wraps up what I thought were the most important pieces of today’s press conferences. Brian Kelly will be addressing the media throughout spring practice so stay tuned to SlapTheSign.com (@SlapTheSign) for updates.