Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 OCT. 30, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED N ot unlike the man-in-the mirror moment Irish head football coach Brian Kelly faced after a 4-8 season in 2016, Notre Dame head basketball coach Mike Brey went through similar introspection this spring after his team went 11-15 last season and again failed to earn its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2016-17. Adding insult to embarrass- ment, Notre Dame's 2020-21 sea- son ended with a 101-59 loss to North Carolina in the ACC Tour- nament, the most lopsided defeat of Brey's career. With that as a backdrop, Brey, 62, enters this season well aware that another NCAA Tournament whiff this season will bring some tough talks and intense offseason evaluation. "That's the crossroads we're at," Brey freely admitted last March following the embarrassing 42-point loss to the Tar Heels. Believing that status quo must go, Brey's restoration project immediately afterward began with an assistant over- haul that included replacing two of his four bench coaches. In a staff shakeup nutshell, assistant Ryan Humphrey is back for his sixth season; Anthony Solomon —known as a tireless recruiter — was hired as as- sociate head coach for a third tour of duty under Brey; and former Irish player Antoni Wyche (1995-99) was hired as Brey's third assistant after impressively serving similar roles at Lehigh and Siena the last 12 seasons. "We've certainly made some changes with staff that I felt we really needed to do to be in the best position," Brey explained. In similar fashion after his 2016 nose- dive, Kelly brought in a new offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coach. In all, five of Notre Dame's nine foot- ball position groups had new coaches the following season. Kelly's longtime strength and conditioning director, Paul Longo, also was replaced. "We failed, and I failed," Kelly explained at the time of a program reset which has him on track this season to win at least 10 games in five consecutive years. Be it through rejuvenation or job preservation, Brey hopes his staff shuf- fle provides similar results. "I like where we're at," he said. "It was a long spring as we went through re-evaluation." And while Brey features a veteran group to start this journey — seniors Prentiss Hubb, Nate Laszewski, Dane Goodwin and Cormac Ryan have com- bined for nearly 200 career starts — the question remains if team leadership is strong enough to lift this program from ACC irrelevancy. The aforementioned group of return- ing players has always been described as "responsible young men" and "terrific teammates" and "coachable players." But will any among it become a De- metrius Jackson, a Pat Connaughton, a Jerian Grant, a Rex Pflueger or a Ben Hansbrough for this team? Those five vocal leaders from yes- teryear routinely held teammates ac- countable off the court, and on it, they provided an air of confidence during those inevitable tense stretches and late-game situations in league play. Notre Dame is only 28-46 in con- ference games the last four seasons. When the Irish players were asked earlier this month about leadership candidates, their an- swers unanimously included some form of "group," "collective," "to- gether," and "everybody." Sounds unified, indeed, but far from definitive. There's only one goal for an Irish team that's picked to finish eighth in the ACC — and that's to break the longest NCAA Tour- nament drought of Brey's 22-year career at Notre Dame. Brey recognized and emphasized that challenge in March when as a lesson in humility and motivation, he invited the team to his home to watch the NCAA Tournament Se- lection Sunday bracket reveal. "At the end, I said, 'Fellas, I re- ally want you to experience this,' they're seeing teams cheer when they get a bid," Brey shared. "There's noth- ing like that day and we've missed it for a couple years. For a basketball coach, that's Christmas when it goes well." Brey has been in this place before, particularly during the 2006 offseason after missing the NCAA Tournament for a third straight year. With his back against the wall and his butt getting warm, Brey responded with nine NCAA Tournament appearances in 11 seasons, including consecutive Elite Eights in 2015-16. Using a similar blueprint to what Kelly devised in 2017 for his football program, Brey hopes that history re- peats itself again. "I'm very motivated to get us back," said Brey, whose contract with Notre Dame runs through the 2024-25 season. "… I put immense pressure on myself to do that." He knows full well that another dra- matic staff shuffle may come before next season if he doesn't. ✦ Brey is coming off of an 11-15 season and hasn't guided the Fighting Irish to the NCAA Tournament since 2016-17, the longest drought of his 22-year tenure in South Bend. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS Mike Brey Is Hoping, Needing To Repeat History UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com