Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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8 JANUARY 2020 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME A New Face With Fresh Ideas Could Provide A Boost By Todd Burlage Notre Dame's quest to find a replacement for offensive coordinator Chip Long already has a similar feel to 2014 when Irish head coach Brian Kelly hired defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder to fill the position vacated when Bob Diaco left the program. Kelly said at the time the decision to hire VanGorder was primarily based on familiarity and a relationship the two built working together at Grand Valley State in the early 1990s. "Brian is one of the best teachers," Kelly said, "if not the best teacher that I've ever been around." The move failed miserably, and VanGorder was fired four games into a 4-8 season in 2016. Using familiarity and/or promotion to fill an important as- sistant position is easy — and understandably tempting — for any head coach. Doing so takes search headaches out of the equation. But Kelly has proven adept at hiring out of the box, and he needs to do so again. These three consecutive double-digit-win seasons are rooted in the 2017 hires of Long, defensive coordinator Mike Elko and linebackers coach Clark Lea (now the DC), three coaches with whom Kelly never previously worked. Chatter and speculation suggest that Irish quarterbacks coach Tom Rees and/or Irish offensive line coach Jeff Quinn head the list to replace Long. Kelly has a long history with both— Rees at Notre Dame, and Quinn at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Notre Dame. Just be warned, what you think you know isn't necessarily what you'll get. A new face with fresh ideas might provide a broader knowledge base than what you already have. Familiarity Can Breed Success By Lou Somogyi It is a persuasive argument that Brian Kelly needs to go outside his comfort zone and have people who can implement fresh ideas into the operation. When he did that in the winter of 2017 to com- pensate for the 4-8 collapse in 2016, the re- sult has been a 32-6 record (entering this year's Camping World Bowl), fifth best among the 65 Power Five schools over the past three seasons. Thus, there is some angst that with offensive line coach Jeff Quinn and the possibility of for- mer 2010-13 Fighting Irish quarterback Tommy Rees getting promoted to coordinator, the crony- ism element will inhibit Notre Dame from actual- izing its full potential as a program. However, 2014-16 defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder in reality had not worked with Kelly in 23 years and had mostly been in the NFL in previous years. Part of the problem there was he had become too removed from the college game and was like a professor trying to teach calculus to third-grade students grasping basic math. He also had a quarterbacks coach in 2014 (Matt LaFleur) who is now the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. It didn't make any difference here. Kelly needs coaches familiar with the college game and Notre Dame who can recruit to the school and impart its vision. I'm as skeptical as the next person about whether too much too soon would be put on Tommy Rees' plate, but at the same time taking that kind of chance maybe does go outside one's comfort zone. Point ✦ Counterpoint: SHOULD QUARTERBACKS COACH TOMMY REES BE THE NATURAL CHOICE TO SUCCEED CHIP LONG AS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR? The moment Notre Dame shooting guard Robby Carmody crumbled to the floor Dec. 4 against Maryland with a season- ending knee injury, Irish fifth- year senior captain Rex Pflueger might have been the only per- son in the arena to feel worse than his fallen teammate. Almost exactly a year prior to the day from when Carmody suf- fered his knee injury, Pflueger's season ended in the same way, so nobody could better relate to the hopelessness Carmody was feeling as he was taken off the court in a wheelchair. The loss of Carmody, coupled with the recent transfer decision of sophomore forward Chris Doherty, drops the Irish to only eight scholarship players as the merciless grind of the ACC season fast approaches. Pflueger is reminded of last December when sim- ilar transfer and injury circumstances also left the Irish shorthanded, bringing some unwanted déja vu this December just two games into league play. BGI: How do you keep the feel- ings of "here we go again" out of your head? Pflueger: "Mentality, positivity, I think that is all we can preach right now. If you try to dwell on it, I think you are going to get lost in it. "The best way is to keep mov- ing forward, and do what we did before, and just get better." BGI: You were the first one to console Robby after the injury. What was going through your mind? Pflueger: "Robby is my brother. I see a similar personality in him, and I've been through the exact same thing, basically exactly a year ago. "So when I saw him go down it was kind of an emotional period for me because you never want to see that happen to anyone, nonetheless your teammate." BGI: What was your message? Pflueger: "I just kind of wanted to be there. I know everyone else on the team wanted to be there, his family, but I just wanted to make sure he knew that we were there for him and we will always be there for him." BGI: After missing most of last season with a shoulder injury, how has Carmody been holding up this time around? Pflueger: "Robby has been keeping his attitude up and staying positive. It's just amazing to see the kid. I think he has helped us a lot. "We were hurting just as he was, but just seeing him smile every single day and just being there for us is very motivational." BGI: How does Robby's injury change the dy- namics of the team? Pflueger: "I just think people need to be ready. Everyone is going to have an opportunity to play, everyone has got to step up. I think our team, we're like a family, we're a band of brothers and we're going to have each other's back. "Going into every single game we've just got to let each other know that, and just try to put as much confidence into each other as we can." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With … FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR BASKETBALL CAPTAIN REX PFLUEGER The 27-year-old Rees will have more responsibilities for the Fighting Irish during the Camping World Bowl Dec. 28, but it remains to be seen if he will be elevated to offensive coordina- tor on a full-time basis. PHOTO BY MIKE MILLER PFLUEGER