BRIAN KELLY NOTRE DAME
BRIAN KELLY: Good morning. Obviously a great match-up this weekend. Georgia Tech has the most prolific offense in the country right now and have proven that over the last couple years. So certainly a great challenge. Coach Johnson has done an incredible job everywhere he's been. This year with Justin Thomas at quarterback and great depth at the running back position and playing very good defense, taking the football away, it's going to be a great challenge. We're going to have to play our very best, and looking forward to a great match-up between two teams that haven't played in a little bit. Again, from our standpoint, playing a great offense, a defense that takes the football away. Should be a great match-up.
Q. Your biggest takeaways from Mike London's Virginia team? Obviously you came away from there with a victory, but what can you say about Virginia after playing them?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I thought defensively a lot more physical. I thought last year they were extremely athletic and quick off the edge, as evidenced by having those edge players move on to the NFL. But very physical. Their front seven I thought played very physical, and offensively I thought coach Fairchild did a great job with misdirection, and Johns played very, very well. We brought a lot of pressure. He hung in the pocket and made some timely throws. Well-coached, and I thought they played extremely well.
Q. And then as far as losing Malik Zaire, just what can you say about (DeShone) Kizer moving forward at quarterback, what he did on film, and now that you have some time to obviously coach him up and get him ready to take leadership of this team?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, you know, again, he's going to be a first-time starter, so we've got to prepare for what that might entail, and certainly handling first times, and he's going to get a lot of first times. We've got to keep things in a situation for him that he can deal with first times and just go back to the basics for him. We can't get too complicated. On the other hand, we've got to be able to score points against a prolific offense like Georgia Tech. It's kind of one of those things where we can't handcuff him and baby him. We've got to let him play. What I like about him the most is he's very confident. He's got very good poise and leadership skills. He can go out there, and we really don't have to worry about him with kind of that deer in the headlights look to him. He's going to go out there being very confident.
Q. Obviously you're known as a very passionate coach. I'm wondering how you balance the passion and the need at times to coach hard with not crossing a line and going too far?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I think it's very important that as a leader that you can't lose control because your team is counting on you, just like you can't have a player lose control. You can be passionate, you can be tough, you can display all of those kinds of emotions, but you have to be in control at all times. So if you lose control, then I think as the leader, it's the same as not having any control at all. I think that's the line that you're still in a leadership role and you have to provide that consistency relative to leadership.
Q. How do you look to kind of maybe tailor your offense to kind of take advantage of Kizer's strong suits, and also what's the focus this week in terms of doing better on 3rd down than last week?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, you know, we'll certainly have to move towards the things that we feel like DeShone is going to be efficient at. To be quite frank with you, some of that stuff is unfolding as we go through the week, as we put together the game plan. We're looking at things that he's very comfortable with, and you know, that will kind of come together here over the next couple of days. We've kind of got an idea of -- we recruited him to this system of offense, so the system is not going to change very much, but we'll kind of put together the things that we think fit him. He still has the ability to run the football. He's 6'4½", almost 6'5", 235 pounds, so he's a big kid with the ability to throw it. We'll obviously go towards the balance of running it and throwing it. And as to 3rd down, we think of it more as just executing a little better, and some of the things that happened on 3rd down for us were learning experiences at the quarterback position.
Q. Virginia's Canaan Severin was ACC receiver of the week for his performance against you guys. Can you comment on that performance, and what did you guys do in terms of adjustments to try to minimize him as the game wore on?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, our focus was on (Taquan) Mizzell quite frankly, and not that we didn't think Severin was a good player at all. But he physically was able to dictate a lot of the things that occurred in the game. He was able to use his size, his strength against our defenders. I just thought his desire and will to go get the football was outstanding. But I think the overriding factor was Johns was outstanding at getting him the football and putting the football in a good position where he could go up and use his size against our defensive backs.
Q. With Boston College and Florida State opening up the ACC conference here, it looks like Everett Golson will be making his ACC start against the Eagles, who he might have well faced had he stayed at Notre Dame at Fenway Park this year. Given hindsight and that being what it is, did you have any druthers about him deciding to transfer to Florida State, and was there any attempt to persuade him to stay?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I kind of knew when he came into my office that he had made up his mind. I would have liked to have had him stay here, no question. My feeling was that he was going to stay because he went through spring ball, and there was no inclination that he was going to transfer. In all honesty I thought he was going to stay. But I knew once he had come into my office he had made his decision, so I wasn't going to try to talk him out of it at that point. You know, as to what school, he had earned his degree, so he had the right to go anywhere, so I wasn't going to dictate what school he went to. So really from that standpoint it really wasn't much of a concern for me.
Q. Was losing all that game experience a concern in terms of replacing it, and now given the situation that you have at quarterback, has that become even more of an issue?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, we obviously felt really good about Malik, which precipitated obviously some of the situation that occurred, right? We started Malik in the bowl game, and obviously created some of this. We knew that obviously that was not going to create the easiest of situations with two very good quarterbacks. It wasn't like we didn't have our eyes wide open that the potential could exist. I just didn't think going through spring ball that it would happen. Now obviously we had to get another quarterback ready, so we were prepared for this eventuality, and we got DeShone Kizer ready, and now it's his chance. So all that other stuff really is immaterial because we feel like we spent the appropriate time to get DeShone ready.
Q. What's it like adjusting with you and Coach Sanford, losing not only Malik but losing the starting tight end and starting running back in the first two weeks?
BRIAN KELLY: We're kind of on the treadmill, right? We're just kind of running and we keep moving, and we don't stop to think about it, quite honestly. If we stopped to think about it, we'd probably be like most everybody else in the country, we'd be concerned about it. We just keep moving, and there's other guys in our program -- we have 85 scholarships, and you only have to play 11 guys on offense, so hopefully you've done a good job recruiting depth on your team, and the next guy steps up. So far that's worked out pretty good. Now, the quarterback position is a whole different animal now, so we're preparing DeShone to go in there as a freshman and we feel good about our preparation, and now he's got to go in there and compete. But as coaches you don't really spend much time on it. Really we don't make any excuses because people really don't care about that stuff. They just want you to win.
BRIAN KELLY: Good morning. Obviously a great match-up this weekend. Georgia Tech has the most prolific offense in the country right now and have proven that over the last couple years. So certainly a great challenge. Coach Johnson has done an incredible job everywhere he's been. This year with Justin Thomas at quarterback and great depth at the running back position and playing very good defense, taking the football away, it's going to be a great challenge. We're going to have to play our very best, and looking forward to a great match-up between two teams that haven't played in a little bit. Again, from our standpoint, playing a great offense, a defense that takes the football away. Should be a great match-up.
Q. Your biggest takeaways from Mike London's Virginia team? Obviously you came away from there with a victory, but what can you say about Virginia after playing them?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I thought defensively a lot more physical. I thought last year they were extremely athletic and quick off the edge, as evidenced by having those edge players move on to the NFL. But very physical. Their front seven I thought played very physical, and offensively I thought coach Fairchild did a great job with misdirection, and Johns played very, very well. We brought a lot of pressure. He hung in the pocket and made some timely throws. Well-coached, and I thought they played extremely well.
Q. And then as far as losing Malik Zaire, just what can you say about (DeShone) Kizer moving forward at quarterback, what he did on film, and now that you have some time to obviously coach him up and get him ready to take leadership of this team?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, you know, again, he's going to be a first-time starter, so we've got to prepare for what that might entail, and certainly handling first times, and he's going to get a lot of first times. We've got to keep things in a situation for him that he can deal with first times and just go back to the basics for him. We can't get too complicated. On the other hand, we've got to be able to score points against a prolific offense like Georgia Tech. It's kind of one of those things where we can't handcuff him and baby him. We've got to let him play. What I like about him the most is he's very confident. He's got very good poise and leadership skills. He can go out there, and we really don't have to worry about him with kind of that deer in the headlights look to him. He's going to go out there being very confident.
Q. Obviously you're known as a very passionate coach. I'm wondering how you balance the passion and the need at times to coach hard with not crossing a line and going too far?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I think it's very important that as a leader that you can't lose control because your team is counting on you, just like you can't have a player lose control. You can be passionate, you can be tough, you can display all of those kinds of emotions, but you have to be in control at all times. So if you lose control, then I think as the leader, it's the same as not having any control at all. I think that's the line that you're still in a leadership role and you have to provide that consistency relative to leadership.
Q. How do you look to kind of maybe tailor your offense to kind of take advantage of Kizer's strong suits, and also what's the focus this week in terms of doing better on 3rd down than last week?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, you know, we'll certainly have to move towards the things that we feel like DeShone is going to be efficient at. To be quite frank with you, some of that stuff is unfolding as we go through the week, as we put together the game plan. We're looking at things that he's very comfortable with, and you know, that will kind of come together here over the next couple of days. We've kind of got an idea of -- we recruited him to this system of offense, so the system is not going to change very much, but we'll kind of put together the things that we think fit him. He still has the ability to run the football. He's 6'4½", almost 6'5", 235 pounds, so he's a big kid with the ability to throw it. We'll obviously go towards the balance of running it and throwing it. And as to 3rd down, we think of it more as just executing a little better, and some of the things that happened on 3rd down for us were learning experiences at the quarterback position.
Q. Virginia's Canaan Severin was ACC receiver of the week for his performance against you guys. Can you comment on that performance, and what did you guys do in terms of adjustments to try to minimize him as the game wore on?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, our focus was on (Taquan) Mizzell quite frankly, and not that we didn't think Severin was a good player at all. But he physically was able to dictate a lot of the things that occurred in the game. He was able to use his size, his strength against our defenders. I just thought his desire and will to go get the football was outstanding. But I think the overriding factor was Johns was outstanding at getting him the football and putting the football in a good position where he could go up and use his size against our defensive backs.
Q. With Boston College and Florida State opening up the ACC conference here, it looks like Everett Golson will be making his ACC start against the Eagles, who he might have well faced had he stayed at Notre Dame at Fenway Park this year. Given hindsight and that being what it is, did you have any druthers about him deciding to transfer to Florida State, and was there any attempt to persuade him to stay?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, I kind of knew when he came into my office that he had made up his mind. I would have liked to have had him stay here, no question. My feeling was that he was going to stay because he went through spring ball, and there was no inclination that he was going to transfer. In all honesty I thought he was going to stay. But I knew once he had come into my office he had made his decision, so I wasn't going to try to talk him out of it at that point. You know, as to what school, he had earned his degree, so he had the right to go anywhere, so I wasn't going to dictate what school he went to. So really from that standpoint it really wasn't much of a concern for me.
Q. Was losing all that game experience a concern in terms of replacing it, and now given the situation that you have at quarterback, has that become even more of an issue?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, we obviously felt really good about Malik, which precipitated obviously some of the situation that occurred, right? We started Malik in the bowl game, and obviously created some of this. We knew that obviously that was not going to create the easiest of situations with two very good quarterbacks. It wasn't like we didn't have our eyes wide open that the potential could exist. I just didn't think going through spring ball that it would happen. Now obviously we had to get another quarterback ready, so we were prepared for this eventuality, and we got DeShone Kizer ready, and now it's his chance. So all that other stuff really is immaterial because we feel like we spent the appropriate time to get DeShone ready.
Q. What's it like adjusting with you and Coach Sanford, losing not only Malik but losing the starting tight end and starting running back in the first two weeks?
BRIAN KELLY: We're kind of on the treadmill, right? We're just kind of running and we keep moving, and we don't stop to think about it, quite honestly. If we stopped to think about it, we'd probably be like most everybody else in the country, we'd be concerned about it. We just keep moving, and there's other guys in our program -- we have 85 scholarships, and you only have to play 11 guys on offense, so hopefully you've done a good job recruiting depth on your team, and the next guy steps up. So far that's worked out pretty good. Now, the quarterback position is a whole different animal now, so we're preparing DeShone to go in there as a freshman and we feel good about our preparation, and now he's got to go in there and compete. But as coaches you don't really spend much time on it. Really we don't make any excuses because people really don't care about that stuff. They just want you to win.
