Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IN THE TRENCHES ANDREW OWENS F rom 2005‑09, Notre Dame em‑ ployed Charlie Weis as its coach. He made headlines for a quote that became infamous once his Irish squads began to struggle, noting that Notre Dame held a "decided sche‑ matic advantage" over opponents. In 2015, sixth‑year Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly is stressing the op‑ posite with a "culture beats scheme" motto. "It's not X's and O's," Kelly said. "It's not individuals. It's not anything about singular. It's Team 127. It's the culture of this program which means you hold each other accountable, there is an attention to detail. The mission is more important than keeping your guys happy. It's really about that, and that goes to culture and that mindset. "So I want to establish — because we knew, like you guys know, we know we've got a collection of good players. That's not going to win. But culture will win. If everybody's bought into that culture, if everybody's bought into team — because some guys are going to have to give up some carries and some guys are going to have to give up some accolades for this team to get to the playoffs, and that's why we push that message." During Kelly's first two seasons, he had to instill confidence into his play‑ ers that they were good enough to win games. Then came the 12‑1 season in 2012, which raised the bar for any fu‑ ture season under Kelly. 'Culture Beats Scheme' Mantra To Be Tested Head coach Brian Kelly knows that it will take more than talent to be successful in his sixth season at Notre Dame, noting that he needs his players to buy into the team-first culture he has tried to establish. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND