Cavalier Corner Digital

✦ QUOTING KELLY "We go to work on it in January relative to playing better in November, because it's not just execution. It's your strength, it's health, it's taking care of yourself. All of those things have to come together as well to play well in November." Heisman Trophy: "My last pitch would be win all your games. You're a defensive player. Dominate from a defen- sive standpoint, win all your games, be the No. 1 team in the country. Has to be all those circumstances to get the attention shifter from the offensive player to a defensive player. "And we've said that from day one. It'll have to be that On why senior linebacker Manti Te'o should win the kind of season, so we'll have to beat USC." On starting the year unranked: "That's why they play the games. It's a long season. It's college football. It's 18- to 21-year-olds. There are so many factors that go into this. That's why as coaches we get asked all the time, 'Hey, did you expect to win 11 or 12?' "We know the unexpected is always out there, and we try to stay focused on the next practice. If we did what you did and did that big picture stuff, it would drive us crazy too." has improved the most: "Route running. Ball catching. Those are two huge areas where he has elevated his game. He practices with a purpose every day now. He is locked in. He's getting more north and south in his running. The inside outside zone scheme is set to run north and south. We don't want a lot of cutting. "We ran the option play on Saturday, and he was looking to cut off of somebody. He was resisting the temptation. When he runs north and south, we all know what he's capable of. So those three areas he's really made great improvement." On having a No. 1 mentality long before being On what areas senior running back Cierre Wood and every week. So for us, it's business as usual. They're going to play outstanding football. We better be ready for USC's best." about Notre Dame being irrelevant: "They understand the basic tenets of being part of a championship pro- gram. And that is, first of all, 'Speak for yourself.' Don't comment on things you don't know about. They see that every day on a sign that we have in our building. "Don't fuel any expectations, because we're the only On players not reacting to outside noise this year ones in here that know what we want to accomplish on a day-to-day basis. We stay so much more small picture that we never get outside and think of those at 35,000 feet. We're operating on, 'You better have a good day today in practice because you just watched film, and we saw the things you did wrong yesterday.' You don't see that stuff, but we do. "So we're able to take it and deal with the detail stuff. If you guys [the media} were watching a particular player and commenting on the individual technique and what he was doing on every specific play, then you would be able to have that smaller picture conversation. That's what we do. "We keep them away from the big picture, because they don't see it that way. They don't come to work that way on a day-to-day basis." actly. It goes back to that. They don't know all that other stuff because it's never talked about. They're talking to their wide receiver coach or their DB coach about lever- age and getting out of their back pedal and those kinds of things. "Those conversations about big picture stuff never take On controlling what Notre Dame can control: "Ex- place." On sophomore quarterback Everett Golson run- Head coach Brian Kelly said that sophomore quarterback Everett Golson's contribution to the rushing attack — he has 258 yards and five scores on the ground — is important, but that the Irish need to pick their spots in order to keep him healthy. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA ranked at the top: "The other teams are going to play their very best, but we get that every week anyway. "We get the absolute best from our opponents each ✦ PAGE 11 ning the ball: "He still needs another coat of armor on him. He needs another year in the weight room and needs to get thicker. We need to be judicious in when we run him, but we have to run him. "He's better when he runs. He's better physically and mentally. He loves to run and get out there. We've been more judicious. Obviously, I'd like to get him stronger, too, and we continue to build towards that." ✦

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