Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Cave has thick skin, as most of the ex- perienced players do. They also have a better understanding of what makes Kelly tick. His coach's new attitude, however, makes it that much easier for the underclassmen. "Any time you have the head guy around and you feel like you have easy access to him and you can go to him with anything you've got … just to sit down with him and have a conversa- tion, it makes guys feel a lot more com- fortable," Cave said. "Just to be able to go up to him and approach him, I think that's great. Especially for us older guys, we know how Coach Kelly is and how easy he is to get along with. For the younger guys, they're not used to that. To see him around I think really helps them adjust." Convincing players is the first step. players feeling as if it's okay to call. Building two-way trust is also impor- tant, evidenced by the formation of the A-Team (Accountability Team), which is comprised of members from each class on the Irish football team. It was introduced by Kelly to make sure he remains in tune with his players. "Back in January, we started every Kelly simply wants to start with his Monday with our A-club, our A-team, and I would meet, just myself, with our players," Kelly said. "I just think my emphasis of spending more time with the players and getting to know them better, and letting them get to know me better than just sitting up in an office and, 'There's where the head coach at Notre Dame sits.' " The changes seem to be beneficial for everyone involved. "He's not yelling as much," senior running back/slot receiver Theo Rid- dick said. "He comes to us first and we do all the yelling. I think that's a great transition. It all depends on who it's coming from and where it's coming. I think if a player was to yell at a player, they wouldn't take it as offensive ver- sus a head coach or another coach yell- ing at them. I think that sequence has helped us out so far. www.BLUEANDGOLD.com a member of the A-Team, and he has also witnessed significant changes be- cause of Kelly's introspection. "He's a lot more relaxed, I think," open and we get to joke and laugh with him. It's more of a comfort thing, and everyone seems very comfortable with him right now." Fifth-year senior John Goodman is "He's here more often, he's more Convincing everyone else there is a reason to believe in Fighting Irish foot- ball is also crucial. Five different head coaches at Notre Dame finished un- beaten and/or won a national title in their third seasons. That's a lot to ask of Kelly, who enters 2012 with a first-time starter at quarterback (either sopho- more Everett Golson or junior Andrew Hendrix), without several special per- formers on both sides of the ball from 2011 and facing arguably the toughest schedule in the country. When asked what would tip the Goodman said. "This is his third year at Notre Dame and he's gotten better with that each year. I think this is obvi- ously and absolutely his best year yet. He came in here and just told us, 'It's your team and I'm going to lead you, but it's your team.' He also is doing so many things for us to make us a better team that obviously he's not going to tell you guys about because he doesn't want to get all the glory. "His talk before practice [early in scale if his two quarterbacks came out of fall camp even, Kelly insisted intan- gible qualities would heavily factor in. The same could be said for a program straddling the median. Intangibles, such as chemistry, trust and respect could wind up determining whether or not this program takes a major step forward in Kelly's third season. "Certainly finishing the way we fin- camp] was just one of those talks that gets you really ready and amped up and ready to go. He has that ability to do that to you and to instill that confi- dence in you and get the team going. If you have a single guy that can do that with 105 guys, plus the coaches, then that's saying something and you're going somewhere." Fifth-year senior center Braxston ished, I think any coach, whether they come to the same conclusion I did or not, you're always going to take a step back and look, all right, what can we do better?" Kelly said. "There was noth- ing wrong with our schemes. There was nothing wrong with what we were teaching them. What was wrong was we weren't winning games that I thought we should win, and so some- times you've got to look at yourself. "So I think the bottom line for me is that I wanted to be more involved in that process of making sure that I could help our players win, and that means you've got to push the distrac- tions away and focus on why you're here, and that is I want to coach my guys." ✦ PRESEASON 2012 37