Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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he knows how we're going to play, and he knows we're going to give everything we've got. So we don't have to do drills or have double practices. … He knows how much heart we have, and he knows how much we care about him and we'll do anything for him. He's found that little comfort with that and confidence in his team. "When he got here, he didn't know us. When- ever you don't know, you try to feel them out — and we were try- ing to feel him out, too. It's a growing process, a learning process that we got through. There were some bumps along the way, but it's brought us to where we are." necessarily equate with rigidity or an unwill- ingness to adjust. At his other stops, Kelly's blueprint required a dif- ferent template, one that included selling tickets to fill seats. At Notre Dame, it was about building a champion- Consistency doesn't FINE-TUNING ship defense, with the other pieces gradually inserted. Prime example: In Kel- ly's final season at Cin- cinnati, the 12-0 Bearcats ranked dead last (120th) in time of possession (25:46). This year enter- ing the Nov. 17 Wake Forest contest, the Irish were ninth (32:40). There it was about "shooting gram, Kelly has veered from the stereotype that the head coach needs to be an almost feared, distant figure among the players. "I don't know that FOR HIM, THAT'S WHEN YOU START GETTING A PRETTY GOOD TEAM. HE SPEAKS, WE ALL LISTEN, WE "WHEN YOU TRUST YOUR HEAD COACH AND YOU'LL DO ANYTHING SENIOR LINEBACKER MANTI TE'O ON KELLY OF TEACHING HIS PLAYERS, LOVING HIS PLAYERS AND JUST BEING HIMSELF." the threes." Here, it's about asserting a physi- cal style. Different formulas, ALL DO WHAT HE SAYS. HE'S GONE BACK TO THE BASICS that's the model today," Kelly said. "I think to- day it's respect and lead- ership and great com- munication. I think we had established all those things." "Eve ry t ime similar success. It's all about playing to the strengths of a program. From streamlining schedules to get players into study hall faster, to meeting regularly with a Team Unity Coun- cil comprised of about a dozen players — one from each class on of- fense and defense — on issues inside the pro- per the request of the Unity Council, pep ral- lies were changed to an hour earlier so the team meal can be at the team hotel rather than on campus — better mirror- ing what they do in road games, where they had been more focused than at home. Kelly's purple-faced detonations on the side- lines are no longer as visible, although he said he will "pick my spots" A recent example was there has been an issue, Coach has fixed it," Toma said. "In the past, it was a lot more about business. I think we've cre- ated a family at- mosphere, and it starts with your head coach."