Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME the Notre Dame human resources department is the hiring of three new analysts in the football office: one on offense, one on defense and one on special teams. Popu- lar belief has Jeff Quinn — who worked with Kelly from 1989-2009 at Grand Valley State, Cen- tral Michigan and Cin- cinnati before becoming the head coach at the University of Buffalo — as the analyst on offense. "It will be more of an oversight, quality con- trol," Kelly said of the impending three new hires. "They'll have some responsibilities as it re- lates to meetings. They'll assist position coaches … they may have some weekly game plan spe- cialty situations where they may be respon- sible for some specifics, maybe some short-yard- age or some third-down responsibilities. "The offense and de- fense in particular are vet- eran coaches, so they're going to add some brain power to the room. We'll rely on their experience to add some veteran coaches who bring a lot of experi- ence. We'll call on them to assist." The support staff can't go off campus to recruit, but they can be part of the process on campus during visits from the prospects. "They can be on cam- pus, they can make c a l l s , " K e l l y s a i d . "They're going to make sure that on a day-to- day basis that the pro- cess is moving seam- lessly. Sometimes the recruiting evaluation system … they're go- ing to make sure it gets pushed along. "We just have more resources to make sure that the process is mov- ing quickly." The support staff also is not allowed to do on- field coaching in prac- tices or games, but they are permitted to supply plenty of insight and input in the football of- fices. "They can assist in meetings, be part of film study," Kelly said. "They can be given a specific responsibility of film breakdown: 'Hey, you're responsible for all the t h i rd - d o w n - a n d - l o n g fronts, all the blitzes in the red zone.' "They can have a par- ticular responsibility and oversight." It gives new meaning to the term "team sup- port." ✦ Head coach Brian Kelly has spent the offseason building up his pro- gram's support staff. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND