Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM PRESEASON 2023 9 could do from the moment of resigna- tion, anyway, but move forward. At that time, Notre Dame was just over one month away from the season opener in Ireland. Now the Irish are even closer. There isn't any time to waste on what could have been if Balis never left. It's full steam ahead without him. "Leaders lead," Freeman said. "Leaders continue to lead. I don't care if Matt Balis is our head training coach or Marcus Free- man is the head training coach. Leaders lead. And that's what they'll continue to do because time is not slowing down. "We understand that we have an ob- jective in front of us, and we're making sure we're ready for Dublin, Ireland." MOVING ON Not many people would have been better than Balis to fire up a team to play in the very first college football game of a season. When foot goes to ball at Aviva Stadium at 2:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 26, the college football season will officially be underway. All eyes will be on the Irish. Notre Dame will need to get to that point without the strength and condi- tioning coach who was credited with be- ing a major reason the Irish turned a dis- mal 4-8 season in 2016 into a 10-3 mark in 2017. That was Balis' first season on the job. In the six years Balis spent spear- heading the Irish conditioning program, Notre Dame went 63-18 (.818). He was around for the first-ever stretch of five consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins. Former Notre Dame offensive line- man Mike McGlinchey said in April 2022 that Balis was the best hire Kelly ever made in South Bend. "He is as vital to the Notre Dame football program as anybody out there," McGlinchey said. "This guy changed the face of our football program. He made us winners. He made us tough. He made us work." The Balis departure was tough to en- dure for many of the current players who have been in South Bend for more than a couple years. They feel the same way about him as McGlinchey. "It's been a hard thing going through the whole team," graduate student defensive end Nana Osafo-Mensah said. "That was a guy who was really part of our culture. We really enjoyed his presence. Coach Balis was one of my favorite coaches on the staff since I was a freshman here." Osafo-Mensah credited Balis with helping him through his early years on campus when playing time seemed like a distant pipe dream. "This is the year that I'm going to re- ally be able to put more time out there," Osafo-Mensah said. "But I know he's going to be watching and supporting. I really owe it to him through my process." That's another principle Freeman wants Notre Dame players to come to grips with. Just because Balis is gone does not mean his teachings have to dis- appear with him. Everything Balis brought to the pro- gram for six and a half years can stick around — except for the raspy voice mercilessly demanding one more rep. There is no substitute for that. THE REPLACEMENT What there is a substitute for, as crazy as it may seem to all of the social media and message board doom and gloom- ers, is Balis himself. Especially when it's somebody who learned as his under- study for the last two years. Notre Dame's interim strength and conditioning coach is Fred Hale, who was at Eastern Michigan for seven years before arriving at Notre Dame in February 2021. Hale was Eastern Michigan's co-director of sports performance for four seasons prior to becoming Balis' right-hand man. He knows what it takes to be in charge of a college football strength and condi- tioning program. "He has the experience of doing it, and so the plan has already been crafted," Freeman said. "As I told those guys, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. We need to continue to carry on a plan that's been created from myself, Coach Balis and our whole strength and performance staff." Hale was already an active fixture in Notre Dame's everyday operation. You couldn't go to a spring ball or fall camp practice in 2021 or 2022, and even the spring of 2023, without noticing him bouncing around from line to line dur- ing pre-practice warmups. He's not as loud as Balis, but he's probably even more energized. The players absolutely love him. "He's the right man for the job in terms of an interim guy," Bauman said. "He has a similar style to Balis but brings his own differences and quirks for lack of a better word. He's com- manding. All the guys in the locker room love him. I think he's a great guy to take over the position. "We all love and respect him and trust him, which I think is great. To work your hardest you have to trust the people that are leading you. We have that turst fac- tor with him from being around him for a couple of years now — we all love working for him." "He's got a lot of respect from the players," Raridon added. "You just look at him and hear him talk — he's very, very easy to respect, and he knows how to push us all. I think he'll do a great job." When Bauman said, "We are what runs this place," he had to have meant Hale was included in that. He wakes up and puts on the Notre Dame logo just like the players do. He's an extension of Freeman, and coaches are the closest things to players in terms of actually being between the white lines. Like Leonardo DiCaprio said as Jor- dan Belfort in "The Wolf of Wall Street," "The show goes on." Only this one won't end in an indictment. A national championship, perhaps? ✦ Hale, who spent seven seasons at Eastern Michigan before arriving in South Bend in February 2021, will serve as the Fighting Irish's interim strength and conditioning coach. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER