Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com DECEMBER 2016 7 BY LOU SOMOGYI A ny losing football season at Notre Dame will surely have turmoil and fallout — especially when the head coach just completed his sev- enth season the way Brian Kelly did. On the day after the 34-31 loss to Virginia Tech in Notre Dame's home finale dropped the Fighting Irish to 4-7, Kelly recognized that a lot of soul searching will be involved in the coming months, similar to what he went through with the ouster of former defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder shortly after the 38-35 loss at home to Duke Sept. 24. "When you're 4-7, you have to eval- uate everything," Kelly said. "I don't think I sit here right now with all those answers other than certainly we've talked about players and executing, but coaches are part of the evaluation process as well. I have to be able to evaluate our coaches critically as well. "I'm not prepared to do that at this moment, but I can tell you that no stone will be unturned, and we will look for improvement in all areas." On defense, Kelly said interim de- fensive coordinator Greg Hudson — who also received huge aid from linebackers coach and recruiting co- ordinator Mike Elston of running the unit — will be considered for the co- ordinator slot. "I'll definitely interview inside the staff and certainly look at somebody from the outside, as well," Kelly said. "That process will include internal candidates and there will be external candidates." Special teams have been plagued by inconsistency, while the offense has had way too much of a "too many cooks in the kitchen" atmo- sphere with offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike San- ford; associate head coach and wide receivers coach Mike Denbrock, who has done most of the in-game play calling; and Kelly himself, who al- ways has veto authority. This collaborative effort will be something Kelly said he will think "quite hard on in the offseason, ab- solutely." However, don't expect a dramatic shift in Kelly's identity with the spread offense. When Notre Dame led Virginia Tech 7-0 and had a first-and-goal at the 2-yard line, it had to settle for a field goal because two running plays failed and then a bad snap from the shotgun lost seven yards. It reinforced to many observers that the Irish lack a "physical identity," to pick up the tough yards. How- ever, Kelly pointed out that the Irish rushed for 200 yards against the quality Hokies defense operated by longtime coordinator Bud Foster. "It's what we do … that's what we're comfortable with," Kelly said of the shotgun in that situation. "That's what we practice every day. … "We were going to run quarterback power on that play, and it was blocked very well, and the only problem is we mishandled the snap. Unfortunately, that was an unforced error." When a play is executed well, it's celebrated. When it isn't, the coach is second-guessed. It's part of the job description. The Jekyll-and-Hyde personality of the offense was manifested against Virginia Tech when junior quarter- back DeShone Kizer completed 13 of 18 passes for 199 yards in first half, and connected on only 3 of 15 throws for 36 yards in the second when the Irish tallied seven points on seven possessions. Kelly said too many penalties, dropped passes and missed blocks on pressures resulted in the execution issues. "If we had to do it all over again, we should have thrown the ball a little bit more," Kelly said of the Vir- ginia Tech game. "They were in a lot more pressure fronts, especially in the third and fourth quarter, a lot more man-to-man coverage, and that was the nature of the game." The nature of a losing season at Notre Dame will also call for more changes. UNDER THE DOME 'NO STONE WILL BE UNTURNED' Brian Kelly will have an early, busy and soul-searching offseason Several of Brian Kelly's coaching decisions were second guessed after losing 34-31 at home to Virginia Tech. The seventh-year coach defended his actions the following day. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA