Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Old Hat For The New Man W First-year offensive coordinator Chuck Martin knows Brian Kelly's blueprint BY LOU SOMOGYI Martin on his staff. He just didn't know where. hen Brian Kelly was hired as Notre Dame's new head coach in December 2009, he knew he wanted Chuck SPRING FOOTBALL OFFENSE when Kelly hired Martin, then the Eastern Michigan linebackers coach, to instruct his defensive backs at Di- vision II Grand Valley State. During Kelly's first 10 years at The two first joined forces in 2000 "He actually asked me what do I want to coach. I said I don't care." Named the recruiting coordina- tor, Martin also instructed the entire defensive backfield in 2010 and the safeties in 2011 before getting pro- moted this January to his new assign- ment of coordinating the offense and mentoring the quarterbacks. "It wasn't something I said, 'Hey, part of the job description. Kelly also is in the public relations, fund-raising business as the face of the program. "The general that is leading the Brian Kelly this is what I want to do,' " Martin said. The reasons Martin was entrusted GVSU (1991-2000), the program was a competitive 77-33-2 (.696 win per- centage) and had made the playoffs three times. However, it looked like it had reached a plateau under Kelly after finishing 5-5 in 1999 and 7-4 in 2000. It was in Martin's second year with the duties formerly held by Charley Molnar, now the head coach at UMass, come down to trust, fa- miliarity and leadership. He's never been a quarterbacks coach or offen- sive coordinator at the major college level, but that was not a priority to Kelly. with Kelly that the latter installed the fast-paced spread offense. GVSU exploded with a 41-2 record the next three seasons, with a Division II run- ner-up finish in 2001 and national titles in 2002 and 2003. By 2003, Martin had been pro- sive coordinator, it's not about what you put up on the blackboard; it's about your ability to lead and com- municate," Kelly said. "It's your abil- ity to get your players to play at the level necessary." Martin states his role is not to re- "When you're talking about offen- troops isn't sitting in the trenches day to day with the troops making sure that the troops are doing ex- actly what the general wants," Mar- tin said. "There's somebody else in the trenches, and that's where we come in — not only me but the other offensive coaches and the offensive grad assistants. "We want his offense to look like the way it's supposed to look like. It's just about execution." eliminating the deadly turnovers that plagued the program in 2011. In its five losses last season, Notre Dame had 19 turnovers and the opposition six. Among 120 teams the Irish fin- ished 118th in turnover margin and 110th in most turnovers with 29. The two teams who played in the JOB 1: DON'T BEAT THYSELF Foremost on the priority list is moted to defensive coordinator, and in 2004, after Kelly took the head coaching job at Central Michigan, Martin was named his successor at Grand Valley State. Taking on the play-calling duties for the Lakers, Martin was 74-7 (.914) in his six seasons as the head coach with two more national titles. His offenses averaged 35.1 points and 427.0 yards per game. Martin seemed ensconced at GVSU, but the longtime Notre Dame zealot couldn't pass up the opportunity to reunite with Kelly. "He knew when he hired me I'd coach wherever," Martin recalled. record and two national titles over six seasons. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND www.BLUEANDGOLD.com After taking over as head coach and assuming play-calling duties at Grand Valley State in 2004, Martin directed offenses that averaged 35.1 points and 427.0 yards per game en route to a 74-7 invent the wheel with Kelly's spread, but to help make it operate more ef- ficiently and the way it was meant to be. He noted that about 90 percent of the nomenclature of the offense is similar to when the two worked together at Grand Valley State, and tweaks were added by both men over the years. This is not going to be about Mar- tin's "own style" because Kelly will still be calling the plays. It is about imparting the message and plan to every position on offense, with proper execution at a premium. "He is still going to probably be national title game, LSU and Ala- bama, were first (10) and third (12), respectively, in fewest turnovers. "You don't need to be a rocket sci- entist to figure out that if you fumble the ball in some key situations it can certainly affect the outcome of the game," Martin said. "If you throw the ball to the other team in key situ- ations … but it's not just those two facets. "Are we consistent blocking up more heavily involved in offense than any BCS coach," Martin said of Kelly. "That's the nature of who he's always been. The difference is that he's also realized after two years at Notre Dame that there's also much higher demands on the head coach- ing position here than any other place he's been." Coaching and recruiting is only front? It always comes back to head coach and quarterback, but if you watch our tape there were a lot of in- consistencies [everywhere] at times. That's our job to get corrected. Some- times you like to throw it on the play- ers, but they do what we coach them to do. If we don't execute Coach Kel- ly's offense next year you can look at me — no one is going to be more agitated with me than me." Martin said there are two parts to his offensive philosophy. "Part of it is just my own experi- ence as a coach from the defensive side of the ball, kind of a unique per- APRIL 2012 25