Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/123805
running the offense Kelly had incorporated. After the 2009 season, he reunited with Kelly at Notre Dame, first on defense before getting promoted to offensive coordinator in 2012. A week prior to the end of spring drills this year, Kelly admitted that Martin has handled all the play calling in the spring and "my sense is that will continue." That would free Kelly to become more of a CEO, allowing him perhaps more time to enhance an exponentially improved defense that Alabama still labeled as "predictable" in the BCS National Championship Game, and a special teams unit that has been so-so at best. "The head coach, I've always felt, is responsible for the [overall] football," Kelly said. "Those decisions will still be mine. Relative to play calling, Chuck knows what I'm looking for. I have great confidence in his ability to play call, and my expectations are that's the way we'll go in the fall. "He had a lot of impact on our offense last year as well. I have the utmost confidence that we'll continue to grow offensively because we've got a similar philosophy." Because Martin is a disciple of Kelly's offense, he believes it's much ado about nothing. Even last year, while surveying the field from the press box, Martin often had strong input in calling what would work best against certain defenses and situations. Their system employs a basic menu of plays to work from versus any scheme. "If you're changing your game plan and changing your offense every week and always trying to out-scheme somebody, then maybe the play calling is a little more dramatic each week because we're trying to re-invent the wheel," Martin said. "But if you have a lot of success with what you're doing and know how to attack certain fronts and coverages, then you just kind of stick with those beliefs, and usually they take over pretty good." Offensive 'Balance' Offensive balance is not necessarily about run-pass ratio or yardage accumulated in both areas. It's also about the ability to dictate the tempo to your comfort level — and the defense's discomfort. Kelly's 12-0 Cincinnati team in 2009 finished dead last nationally in time of possession (25:46 a game) while playing fast. His regular-season 12-0 Notre Dame team in 2012 was 10th in the country in that same category (32:34). Being able to do both successfully, or also go at a medium pace, should be more possible, according to Martin. Get the defense on its heels, get ahead … and then run clock. "You would hope in 2013 on offense to be able to play at different tempos because that's kind of how the game has evolved," Martin said. "There used to not be different tempos. … The best is mix it up. Play fast, play medium, maybe play slow. Mix it up so the defense is always a little bit offbalance." That has a better chance to come to fruition this season with a more-seasoned Everett Golson at quarterback. "We weren't capable last year for a lot of reasons to go as fast at times as maybe we would like to, or sometimes