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QUIET CONFIDENCE T MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY Senior linebacker Manti Te'o will likely need a shopping cart for all his hardware come December. Defensive coordinator Bob Diaco is deservedly on the short list for the Broyles Awards for the nation's top assistant coach. Senior safety Zeke Motta is a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the country's top defensive back. Don't forget, though, the guy pulling all the strings. If Notre Dame finishes the year as strong as it started, no coach in country deserves more recognition than Brian Kelly. Before sending his team out of the locker room last Saturday in Norman to beat No. 8 Oklahoma in arguably the big- gest win of his career, Kelly told them to take the field with a quiet confidence. They knew exactly what he was talking about. They had been looking at it for the past three years. "You prepared the right way," he said. "You dedicated yourself for this moment. We all knew this moment would come." Maybe that's true, but not many others did. Kelly's confidence at times looked like conceit during back-to-back 8-5 sea- sons. Losing games will do that. He didn't let doubt change his plans. Kelly trudged through tragedy, controversy and damn near mutiny in his first two years in South Bend. Staring down a pivotal third season in which the football gods seemed to be con- spiring to keep him at 8-5, he remained he long list of postseason awards is be- ginning to pare down its contenders as we round the corner into the final month of college football's regular season. Notre Dame is still well represented. in situations that changed a game, this season and arguably the direction of his program. He was equally steadfast in his loyalty to sophomore Everett Golson as the team's starter even when it appeared Rees was outplaying him. Those aren't the actions of a man look- ing over his shoulder. With how this sea- son has played out for everyone who has played quarterback under Kelly at Notre Dame, it's hard to question any of his de- cisions at the position. More than the trust he shows in his staff and his quarterbacks, Kelly's faith in him- self is worth rewarding. He ditched his identity as a shootout schemer for a de- fense-first approach as soon as he came to Notre Dame. Few coaches are so willing to remake themselves after reaching a top- level job. The truth is Kelly didn't really need a makeover. He's always been about one thing: winning by any means possible. That's a tradition that goes a long way Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly is a deserving candidate for National Coach of the Year. as outwardly confident as he was on the day he took the job. That wasn't an act. It couldn't have been. How else could you explain the decisions he has made since the end of last season? He hired a new offensive line coach and running game coordinator, Harry Hies- tand, from the fifth-worst rushing offense in the country. He added a 35-year vet- eran, Bobby Elliott, who was thought to be past his prime, to coach the secondary. And that was only after moving the self- deprecating secondary coach, Chuck Mar- PHOTO BY MIKE BENNETT/LIGHTHOUSE IMAGING tin, an admitted apprentice, to offensive coordinator instead of looking around the country for a top coaching prospect. In the process, Kelly created a staff that he says is working together better than any group he has captained in his career. His quarterback rotation throughout the year was the coaching equivalent of jug- gling Vaseline-coated chainsaws. One mi- nor slip-up would lead to blood. He didn't hesitate to return to junior Tommy Rees, a former starter who had previously worn out his welcome at Notre Dame Stadium, ✦ PAGE 21 at Notre Dame. One that, Kelly seems to have known, would outshine all of the other customs he tweaked once the wins started to come. He made changes. He dared to speak of Jumbotrons and FieldTurf in Notre Dame Stadium. He roared at players on national television to thicken the hide of a team gone soft. Earlier this week, he tossed aside the lessons of history that Irish fans hold so dear as useless. "History will have no effect on this team," he said. But if history does have the floor for just one lesson, it shows that the difference between those who fail and those who suc- ceed at Notre Dame is the confidence to be their own man. Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz didn't try to fit the mold of those that came before them. Kelly isn't either, and that's why he's winning. ✦ E-mail Dan at dmurphy@blueandgold.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @BGI_DanMurphy.