Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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in the trenches andrew owens Heisman Trophy voting that year. Once he moved on to the NFL, however, he lasted two seasons before hanging up his cleats for good. As he admitted years later, his Notre Dame degree diminished the value of a career in professional football. Today, he is one of the most renowned oral surgeons in the country. The catch-22 at Notre Dame is this: The school attracts and pursues young men who are often wideranging in abilities and interests rather than those who eat, sleep and breathe football. However, Kelly demonstrated a year ago that it is possible to win in big-time college football with "tough gentlemen." Look no further than two mainstays on the 2012 Irish defense: linebacker Manti Te'o and defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore. If any doubt existed surrounding their talent or leadership qualities, look back to September of this year when Notre Dame's defense looked flummoxed by a below-average Michigan offense, and in other contests lost sight of the details that helped win 12 regular-season games a year ago. "A lot of you know Kap in terms of being probably one of our biggest cheerleaders for other sports, as well," Kelly said. "His senior year was incredible. His ability to focus strictly on football, just turn the switch on and focus on football and dominate … and do so many other things is what we're looking for. "We want [freshman wide receiver] Corey Robinson to be the multidimensional person that he is. And [sophomore cornerback] KeiVarae Russell to be the lead in the play. But, when it's time to play, we want tough guys. And we were able to really make that transition [against BYU] the way we've been trying to get our players to make that transition." Kelly pointed to that contest as the one when "Notre Dame football" was on display. "They are capable of playing that way," he said. "I think the Pittsburgh game was an anomaly … and they had a chance to go out and show in their last home game the kind of football team that they really are." Why did it take until the 11th game for this year's unit to play that brand of football and find the balance between tough players on the field and gentlemen off of it? Perhaps the coaching staff spent too much energy trying to disassociate the program from the 2012 success by spending the beginning of fall practice at Camp Shiloh and trying to carve a new identity. Kelly uses the BYU win as the example for playing "Notre Dame football," but doesn't he have a year of game tape from a season ago to hoist up as proof? Last year should be the shining example of how toughness and gentleman-like attributes can coalesce into winning football. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com