Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 NOV. 5, 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED N icknamed "The Voice of God" with his dramatic baritone nar- rations on NFL Films, Facenda and his lines likely will resonate with Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and his troops more than ever. Through his first three seasons at Notre Dame from 2010-12, Kelly had earned college football's "Mr. No- vember" moniker. During that span, Kelly was 10-1 in that defining month, the first Fight- ing Irish coach to have achieved that fine a record after 11 November games since Jesse Harper in 1913-15. It began in 2010 when his reel- ing 4-5 team on a two-game losing streak, and having to suddenly start freshman Tommy Rees at quarter- back, defeated No. 15 Utah 28-3. Later that month at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Irish snapped an eight- game losing streak to USC. And there's more. Kelly also was 10-1 in November during his three-year stint at the Uni- versity of Cincinnati (2007-09) be- fore coming to Notre Dame, winning his last eight contests in that month. Four of those victories were against ranked teams, and the lone defeat was in 2007 versus No. 5 West Vir- ginia (28-23). And wait, there's even more! In regular-season games that ex- tended into the month of December while he was at Cincinnati, Kelly was 2-0, highlighted by the pulsat- ing 45-44 win at No. 15 Pitt in which a Bowl Championship Series bid was on the line. The Bearcats trailed 31-10 before rallying to victory and a 12-0 mark. Finally, Kelly also won his last two November games while at Central Michigan University in 2006, high- lighted by the Mid-American Confer- ence championship game, the team's first such title in 12 years. In his final 26 November/De- cember regular-season games from 2006-12, including the MAC title outing, Kelly was 24-2 (.923 winning percentage). His lone November loss at Notre Dame was 28-14 at Stanford in 2011, when quarterback Andrew Luck led the Cardinal. At the time, Kelly said much of the November success was based on a conditioning program, headed by his longtime right-hand man, Paul Longo. This included proper nutri- tion, hydration and pacing of train- ing and practices throughout the year. A huge part of conditioning was not over-working players. "We make it such that it's not a grind," Kelly said during that time of the "secret sauce" regarding his November dominance. "… This is where you get the op- portunity to play for championships. You can't have a great November without having a great plan as it re- lates to your conditioning. "That goes back to January. That goes back to what you do in June. If you try to win the battle in June and July and August, you're probably go- ing to come up short in November. "We want to make sure the tank is full in November, and we've done a pretty good job of it." Alas, in the five seasons from 2013-17, Notre Dame was 9-12 (.429) in November, including last year 's collapses at Miami (41-8) and Stanford (38-20) when the Irish were in the Col- lege Football Playoff (CFP) hunt and Kelly insisted the team's physicality was "built for November." The subpar November perfor- mances from 2013-16 helped result in a massive overhaul of the infrastruc- ture, including a new strength and conditioning staff headed by Matt Balis, in 2017. In 2018, it's time for the worm to turn and losing streaks to North- western (two in a row), Florida State (three consecutive) and in Califor- nia (school record five straight) to end — while also keeping intact an 8-0 record in the Shamrock Series (Syracuse). "We've been in this position mul- tiple times," fifth-year senior line- backer and team captain Drue Tran- quill said of November CFP hunts in 2014, 2015 and 2017. "You know how the Notre Dame fans are: It's always, 'It's our year, it's our year, it's our year!' "And then when you're in a posi- tion at the end of the year to do it, everyone's patting you up, talking how great you are — and if you listen to that, you're going to end up losing focus and end up losing. "We've got to stay locked in, learn from our mistakes from previous years and finish our job this year." The Irish are overdue for another November to remember. ✦ Once More With Feeling, In November THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI Senior Editor Lou Somogyi has been at Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 1985. He can be reached at lsomogyi@blueandgold.com CORRECTIONS In the Oct. 29 "The Fifth Quarter" column, Knute Rockne's death should have been listed as 1931, while Frank Leahy's opener was in 1941. B r i a n K e l l y w a s c o l l e g e f o o t b a l l ' s " M r . November" from 2006-12, but Notre Dame was 9-12 in that month from 2013-17. The Irish have a chance to change that course in 2018. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL "November can be cold and gray; November can be surly, With bitter rain upon the world, and winter coming early. Do you fear the force of the wind? The slash of the rain? Go face them and fight them, Be savage again! The palms of your hands will thicken, the skin of your cheek will tan, You'll grow ragged and weary and wet, but you must do the best that you can." — John Facenda, NFL Films "The Championship Chase" (1974)