Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/87622
UNDER THE DOME SEC on Saturday," critics would harp about Notre Dame trying to have it both ways. In 2010-11, a ray of why can't Notre Dame?" Prior to the arrival of hope returned at Notre Dame — thanks in part to Stanford, which has been to back-to-back BCS bowls while finishing 12-1 and 11-2. "If Stanford can do it, former head coach Jim Harbaugh in 2007, the Cardinal (25-55 from 2002-08) had an iden- tity as a finesse program with future NFL quarter- backs that tried to win shootouts. Harbaugh completely changed the culture around into a physical, blue-collar, hard-nosed identity. Head coach Brian Kelly said that in his two sea- sons at Notre Dame, no team has more physically manhandled the Irish than Stanford during the Cardinal's victories in 2010 (37-14) and 2011 (28-14). Stanford boasted a Harbaugh, who went from 4-8, 5-7 and 8-5 his first three years before posting the 12-win break- out and heading to the NFL. And it's a process for Kelly now — who in- herited a better situation with stronger football tradition than Stanford. The pieces seem to be Tuitt). "If the blueprint was falling in place for Kelly and Co. with an empha- sis on a physical, domi- nant defense. Who would have thought three short years ago that the Irish would be ranked behind only Alabama in scor- ing defense during a 5-0 start? Stanford knew it would never "out-athlete" USC, but with its physical and mentally tough ap- proach, it has defeated the Trojans four years in a row. Likewise, Notre Dame public, it would talk about right out of the gates finding those guys that can physically con- trol the line of scrim- mage," Kelly said of his first priority when he took the Notre Dame job. Like Stanford for most of its football life, Kelly was stereotyped with of- fense as his specialty, a la predecessor Charlie Weis. But like Harbaugh at Stanford, Kelly has been aiming to change the program's recent identity and culture, and it's be- ginning to bear fruit. "They have challenges star QB in Andrew Luck (2009-11), but it was foremost a program that physically imposed its will on you. It was a "process" for might not always be able to recruit from the same pool as some of the SEC powers, but it still has the national brand to sign powerful classes. Its su- perstar linebacker Manti Te'o is from Hawaii, while the starting defen- sive line hails from Texas (Kapron Lewis-Moore), Florida (Louis Nix III) and Georgia (Stephon just as we do," Kelly said of Stanford. "They're an outstanding academic football team, they recruit nationally, and we do that … they're a physical football team, which we want to be as well. "From the outside looking in, you would say there is a lot of simi- larities … I know that's one of the reasons why I came to Notre Dame. I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that you could do it in the class- room and you can cer- tainly do it on the football field."