Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1017623
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com PRESEASON 2018 31 turned well to the main highway … but will it truly reach and comfort‑ ably excel on the Autobahn under his watch? The 2017 result returned some pos‑ itive momentum into the Kelly camp. Among them was that for the second time in three seasons Notre Dame was 10‑3 and finished No. 11. A quarter century ago, that would have been recognized as "an off year" for the Irish. The reality is now those two No. 11 finishes in the Associated Press poll are among the five best at Notre Dame the past 24 years. The 1995 team also placed No. 11, while the 2005 crew was No. 9 and the 2012 dream regular season concluded at No. 4 after the 42‑14 debacle versus Alabama in the BCS National Cham‑ pionship Game. Still, in four of the last six seasons under Kelly Notre Dame entered the month of November with only one loss (or zero), ranked in the top 10 and was a national title contender. Consider that in the 18 years from 1994‑2011, all three of those factors had occurred realistically only once, an 8‑0 start in 2002 under first‑year head coach Tyrone Willingham. Remaining in the 2018 national title/College Football Playoff hunt come November for the fifth time in seven years would uplift the morale again, but to avoid the "lather, rinse, repeat" cycle, the Irish need to break the November swoon that has seen them go 9‑12 during that month since 2013, with a school‑record five con‑ secutive losses in the season finale either at Stanford or USC. And should Notre Dame amass 10 wins to reach a Big Six bowl — or even 11 to potentially get to the Col‑ lege Football Playoff — another al‑ batross remains: In the 24 years from 1970‑93 after ending its bowl ban, the Fighting Irish won the most "major" bowls in the nation with 10, three of them resulting in national titles, and three others with victories against No. 1‑ranked foes. In the 24 years hence (1994‑2017), it has zero such conquests. All the more reason why each passing season becomes more cru‑ cial of achieving prominence "to the nines." ✦ It never fails at Notre Dame or any other college football operation. When- ever a new strength and conditioning coach is hired, he instantly gains cult hero-like reputation as a maniacal martinet whose mandate is to physically challenge his troops. Then when tragedy such as 19-year- old Maryland offensive lineman Jordan McNair occurs, dying June 13 from heat- stroke suffered during an offseason work- out two weeks earlier, suddenly there is cause for pause. Because of what became labeled a "toxic culture," Maryland head coach DJ Durkin was put on leave, but many in the program came to his defense. "Everybody is interested in bigger, faster, stronger; how do you get there?" responded Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly when asked about the Maryland sit- uation. "I still think you get there by being demanding but never demeaning. "Our players, when they come over from a day in the classroom, they want to come over here and … get after it in a pos- itive environment where they're pushed every single day, and there's a demand on them to get bigger, faster, stronger, but never an environment that's demeaning." Second-year director of football per- formance Matt Balis' work became high- lighted when he arrived in the winter of 2017 after a nightmare 4-8 season in which results, direction and attitude had all slipped dramatically. The turnaround in his first year was conspicuous and lauded by the players who admittedly became overwhelmed initially by the new work volume. The conversation this year about the strength and conditioning program has been far less — which in many ways can be taken as a positive. Last year was more of a shock to the system, whereas in year two it's been more about continuing the progress. "Guys kind of build up their work capacity, build up their ability to handle what we're doing," Balis said. "Now it's not just, 'Oh my gosh, what is this?!?' Now it's, 'Here it is and let's attack it and let's get better at it.' "Now they are used to it and we see real improvements in work capacity, real improvements in lean body mass and overall functional size. We see speed improvements, whether it's far speed or movement speed on the ground. They weren't shocked by it all this year. I even told them after the bowl game, 'You're going to handle this a lot better.'" More elements were added to the pro- gram based on progress from last year. "You adapt to the training that they've been given, so now you can start to in- crease the volume a little bit, and that's basically what happened," Balis said. "You also want to keep it fresh, you want to keep the guys on their toes, you don't want them to be, 'Oh, here we go again,' so we like to continue to use the same things and challenge them in the same way, but change up the atmosphere." The objective among the staff is to look at each player as one's own son. "I have a son, and you always keep that in the back of your mind that no matter what you're doing, at the end of the day you love, you respect, you honor guys … you have to be careful," Balis said. "Yeah, strength and conditioning is hard because you have to push people. That's what we're all about. "Guys here want to be pushed, they want to be the best, they want to be champions. Coach Kelly sets the culture. … It's about trust and love and respect, and pushing guys to be champions." — Lou Somogyi Demanding, But Not Demeaning Second-year director of football performance Matt Balis said he goes about his job by showing "trust and love and respect, and pushing guys to be champions." PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL