Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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covering ground quickly, but not for pushing for- ward. They certainly wouldn't be winning games by grinding away in the trenches. "That would be the last thing I would think of before Coach Kelly actually got here — a power running team," senior tackle Zack Mar- tin said. Kelly's ascent to the gan and Cincinnati was equal parts game plan and marketing scheme. "At Cincinnati and top tier of college coach- ing was built on speed. After spending a decade at Division II Grand Val- ley State, Kelly climbed rapidly from one job to the next without the benefit of a strong- limbed coaching tree to propel him higher and earn him notice. He made up for his lack of a sideline gene- alogy with an offensive attack designed to spin heads on the field and turn heads in the bleach- ers. With no particular coaching influence built into his DNA, Kelly was free to choose whatever philosophy worked best. And defense be damned, his teams were going to beat you by lighting up the scoreboard. More of- ten than not, they did. The scoring machine he created at Central Michi- Central Michigan I had to put people in the stands. I had to sell sea- son tickets," Kelly said. "Here, we've sold out since the '70s so I don't need to sell tickets. I just need to win football games." Kelly's winning for- mula this season, which has surprised and elated his veteran offensive linemen, has been to punish teams on the line of scrimmage and pull away late. Notre Dame has owned the second half, especially during the month of October. In their four wins last month, the Irish out- scored their opponents 75-10 in the third and fourth quarters after trailing at halftime in two of those games and holding slim leads in the other two. Essential to their success has been dominating time of pos- session. By melting the clock Notre Dame hung on to the ball longer than seven of its first eight opponents. (Michigan was the lone exception.) During a benchmark road win, the Irish were only three seconds shy of doubling Oklaho- ma's possession time in the second half, which would have been the third time this season they did that to a team. Among the top 10 teams, only Alabama and Flor- ida have been on offense more. It's no coincidence that Alabama and Flor- ida also join the Irish to comprise three of the top four scoring defenses in the country. Long drives give those talented de- fenses time to catch their breath and be the ag- gressor when they take the field. That leads to short opponent posses- sions and an upward spiral of ball control. "We know that we like a Salvador Dali in shoulder pads, Kelly's offense wears oppos- ing teams down while keeping a stingy defense fresh when it's needed. have an outstanding de- fense," fifth-year center Braxston Cave said. "If we can keep them off the field they're going to be on their 'A' game the en- tire game, which they've done an awesome job of this year. It's on us to hang on to the ball to let