Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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periencing it. The kid is going to get experience. "I look at the sched- ules of the teams we play, and we don't get … we could have had some easy teams roll into town and it would be a lot easier for not only a young quarter- back, but a young re- ceiver, a young tight end and a young safety to get those where you have nice scrimmages like some of these people." For now, i t 's about monitoring a variety of factors within the game and making a de- termination as to which quarterback fits the situation best. "You' re s t i l l derstand immediately, 'Hey, I saw it; I screwed up.' Or it could be more of a mistake based on being confused. If it's more based on confu- sion, then you're more apt to maybe play some- body out there that's not so confused. "It just depends on circumstances." Unlike past years in take care of the football this season. Rather than pushing the tempo, head coach Brian Kelly has taken a more measured approach with his offense. As a result, a year after be- ing too charitable, specifically in the first four games of the season, the Irish have done a much better job of protecting the football: MANAGING TO KEEP THE BALL The Irish have made a concerted effort to TO Differential Turnovers W-L just making an educated guess," Martin admitted. "We brought Tommy in [versus Michigan] and on the first drive we go down and score. It looked pretty good af- ter we broke down the scorebook. It's also the feel of having a young quarterback and how's he doing within that moment in time? He can make a mistake and un- 2011 2-2 15 -10 2012 4-0 4 +9 were 7-0 under Kelly when playing an entire game without a turnover and 13-1 when winning the turnover battle. Through four games this season, the Irish the flow, the situation, what [the defense] is doing, the game score, how our defense is play- ing. There are all these factors of managing a football game, which we're really trying to do a good job of because we felt like in the past we didn't always manage the game as well as we could have based on the Kelly's career, defense powers his team in 2012, but there were signs of things to come at the end of 2011, when the Irish put up a combined 44 points in their last three games. Against its three Big Ten foes this Sep- tember, Notre Dame scored 53 points, winning by an av- erage of nine points per game. At Cincinnat i back in 2009, when the Kelly-led squad went 12-0, the Bearcats won late- season games by scores of 47-45, 49- 36 and 45-44. "You go through "We're going to make sure our defense is on a long field. If they're on a long field, they've got a chance to take it away and give us better field position or turn it back to us. It makes an impact on how you manage or call the game." Kelly knows, though, those times of hav- ing a football team where you manage the game accord- ingly," Kelly said. his offense has to be more efficient moving