Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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on certain occasions in practice to convey a needed message. In Kelly's first two years, assistant coaches were made available weekly. This year, other than media day in Au- gust and a half-hour session with coordina- tors Chuck Martin and Bob Diaco during the bye week, all informa- tion comes through Kelly so the assistants can concentrate strictly on coaching, meeting with players and spend- ing more time with their families. Even sophomore quar- terback Everett Golson, seldom made available to the media, is moni- tored in his develop- ment in that realm. Kelly said when he first arrived in South Bend he needed to be more demonstrative so his players knew what was expected of them. Now the "little things" are second nature and the players can do a bet- ter job of policing them- selves — something Eifert said wasn't really present during his first couple of years. "We can kind of hold ourselves and the under- classmen accountable," he said. "We don't have to wait for it to get to the coach." Younger players now lean on veterans to help get them up to speed on what the coaches needed to explain in past years. This has allowed Kelly to be more hands on as a coach this year. "Some people say now sion to prioritize spend- ing more individual time with players this past year has been extremely crucial. "When you trust your Te'o said Kelly's deci- it's on autopilot," he said. "There's a lot of cli- chés that you could use in that sense. I haven't detached myself. I've got myself more involved in it. But our guys are un- derstanding what to do and they can duplicate the process or be more consistent." "The guys that are now taking that lead had to see it for a couple of years, and now that they know what is ex- pected on a day-to-day basis, that allows them to filter down into the ranks now — because they didn't really know what it looked when we started. Now they know what it looks like, now the freshmen under- stand what it looks like. So it becomes easier for us to have, in some in- stances, a player-driven team … they can self- correct." head coach and you'll do anything for him, that's when you start getting a pretty good team," Te'o said. "He speaks, we all listen, we all do what he says. He's gone back to the basics of teaching his players, loving his play- ers and just being him- self." "We're just following his track and we trust that he's going to take us where we want to be," Spond echoed. "Any coach needs at least three years to re- ally get the whole team bought into what they're trying to do," Goodman said. "If you win right away, then I feel like that's beginner's luck. "I feel like he'll defi- nitely keep that rolling with the guys that he recruits and with the standards that he's had us meet and what he's trying to have us do as a team and as a whole." The root s have strengthened, and now growth can truly begin. ✦