Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/434567
"That was the pitch. Joe called me and said, 'Coach, I'm going to come to Notre Dame. I'm going to get my degree. They're going to chase me for the rest of my life.'" Kelly uses that rhetoric with recruits to this day, including the dozen or so who attended the banquet. Tongue in cheek, Schmidt disputed being the original source of the perspective. "I will neither confirm nor deny my quotes. I plead the fifth," he said with a grin. "It's attributed to Joe Schmidt forever." Schmidt claimed if he did use that thought process when choosing Notre Dame, then it was only because for- mer defensive coordinator Bob Diaco planted the seed. "He calls me and says, 'It comes down to do you want to have girls for the next four years or do you want to fly a private jet down to your yacht in the Bahamas to party with girls for 40 years,'" Schmidt claimed Diaco ad- vised him. "I said, 'You make a fantastic point,'" Schmidt added. Before this bit of myth could get too out of hand in the shine of his MVP trophy, Schmidt made a point to clarify his remarks. "I'm not trying to objectify women at all," he said. "That's never been my intention. I have three sisters. They're beautiful and wonderful. I should give the award to them because they beat the heck out of me." Diaco may have implied Schmidt could chase girls for four years, but the California native will actually have a fifth year to do so. With 65 tackles and two interceptions in only eight games this season, he will return next year as the frontrunner to reclaim his starting spot at Mike linebacker. "This is where I was always meant to be," he said on stage. "Like my dad says, since I was 5 years old, I wanted to come to Notre Dame. We win as a team. We do everything as a team. This award is for everybody, this entire team. "Let's go beat LSU, kick the hell out of them and get ready to win a national championship." Fifth-year senior safety Austin Collin- sworth will join Schmidt on the sideline against the Tigers in Nashville, Tenn., after undergoing shoulder surgery the day of the banquet. With his arm in a sling — and his head perhaps still under the effects of general anesthesia — Collinsworth stood alongside fellow captains senior running back Cam Mc- Daniel, senior offensive lineman Nick Martin and junior defensive lineman Sheldon Day to end the evening. Kelly spoke effusively and at length about each. "It was pretty clear that our team wanted the four guys behind me to be their representatives," Kelly said. "They represent, across the board, all of the voices on our team. "The captain, obviously, is the one you look at with respect. That's one you take with you the rest of your life." After straining his MCL less than 48 hours before the season opener, Collinsworth dislocated his shoulder in his first game back against North Carolina Oct. 11. He battled the shoul- der the rest of the season before aggra- vating it against USC Nov. 29. Doctors made it clear to Collin-