| Brian Kelly Transcript | ||||
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 Coach Kelly met with the media following Thursday’s practice as the Irish prepare for Stanford.Is the secondary going to be healthier for this game? “They all took reps today. They all got some reps. They all got some work. I’m glad we’re playing Saturday and not Thursday night football. Every day they are going to get better, and I think when you play that many plays, we’re going to get bumps and bruises all year. There are several players who are going to have to be answering the bell Saturday. I don’t think this is going to be a first-time occurrence. I think we are going to have some bumps and bruises, especially where we lack depth. The reality is, we’re a little thin in certain areas. I think those are some of the areas we were concerned about and, unfortunately, we got all hit at one time at a particular position. I really think they are all going to be able to play on Saturday.” On third down, do you like playing the nickel or dime or are you a base guy? “I think third down is the money down. So if on third down you are vanilla, you are going to be losing a lot of money on third down. Hence, we have to be able to get different looks on third down. If you just line up against any offense in the BCS, they’re going to find ways to keep the ball. So you have to be able to do some things on third down, and we haven’t been able to do, quite frankly. But we have to do this weekend or you guys can write your stories right now.” Do you coach your offense any differently when you’re going up against a team which has a great offense? “It’s a conversation you’re going to have during the week. Do we keep them off the field? Do we try to possess the football? I’ve always run into problems as a play caller if I’m trying to get to the chains and not the end zone. It’s just me; maybe somebody else would be better at it. I’m going to be cognizant of the fact that we are playing a great offense. I think we’ve done a really good job of trying to score points and not putting our defense, excepting one occasion, on a short field. Michigan State had long fields to operate all day. So I think, more than anything else, long fields score points more so than manage the clock, time of possession keeps them off the field.” The defense in the past, and so far this year, has had trouble stopping the run. Do you think this is a confidence issue? “No, I don’t think confidence is really an issue with our guys. If I thought we were disheartened, not confident, our preparation would be different. We don’t lack confidence. I think there are a number of reasons, and I could go on for hours, it’s one play here or there. We have to play clean football and we don’t have a margin; especially in terms of run defense. We have no margin to give up big plays. It just can’t happen. I think that, more than anything else, is what we focused on this week.” How close is Lo Wood to getting on the field? “He would be our fourth guy. He would be our fourth corner. If we have to play the fourth guy, can he line up and do the things that we want him to do for us to be successful? Yes. Absolutely. Again, he’s inexperienced and a young player and, generally, you wouldn’t want to put him in a position that he’s one-on-one without any help.” Could Barry Gallup help you at that position? “No, he’s not ahead of Lo. He would be the fifth guy.” Did special teams receive special emphasis this week? “We have taken our lumps on some effort things, more so than we have schematically. Obviously, one of the things I had mentioned in the press conference earlier this week was that I didn’t like the effort of some of our veteran players on special teams. They are going to have to pick up their play. So, this has been more of, ‘this is your last shot or you’re not going to BC.’ I’m not putting you on the bus if you are the third string whatever position and you’re not giving us great effort on special teams, I’m just going to leave you home. So this has been more on the special teams and challenging our players to play at a higher level.” How difficult has it been without the special teams coordinator on the sidelines? “You always want somebody who has been around that group with you. You don’t want to pull the plug on it two weeks into the season. All things being equal, you want Mike Elston there. Again, if you break down special teams, it came down to some effort things that Mike would not have stood for, nor did our coaches. And then, defending the last play and how we defended it. Truth be told, the same block was on in that situation and we had a field block instead of a middle block. If we are in a middle block, Harrison Smith and Carlo Calabrese are seven yards off the ball, but we are on a field block and we are coming from the field, so they have to press up the backside. So it’s a matter of a call, more so than a person, special teams guy. It’s nice to have him back.” Has Braxston Cave stepped up his game or is there still competition for that position? “I think he’s gotten the message that he has to be more consistent. Braxston gives you great effort and is an unbelievable kid. He’s going to give you everything he has. The problem is, we don’t like some of his choices relative to who he blocks. He chooses to block the wrong people sometimes. Not a good thing, especially when there’s a guy on the nose. He has heard from us that we’re not going to tolerate inconsistencies at that position because (Mike) Golic’s not bad. He can play and (Chris) Watt can go over there too. Just want you to know, there’s some pretty good competition there.” Is this a good match up for you with Stanford? “Each game that we play, we go in expecting to win the game. There’s nobody in our locker room going, ‘Oh my god, we are playing Stanford. We have no chance to win.’ We believe we can win and I think that’s going to be the case every week when we play BC, Pitt. Our kids believe we can win. We just have to play with an intensity, and I think I used the word nasty, but with a will that we have to get out of them. And I expect to get it this Saturday.” Does a win this Saturday sort of get the snowball rolling? “Anytime you win, you gain confidence. You either have to have a will and a burning desire which then transforms itself into winning; winning begets winning. We are 1-2 so we are not walking around going, ‘Hey, we’re just going to roll the ball out here and win.’ So we have to play with a will and a passion and a refusal to give any quarter. That’s what we are going to have to do on Saturday and if we do that and get a win, then winning then becomes that habit forming addiction where they expect to win every day. We are not there yet.” Do you evaluate film all week long? “I would say probably 75 percent of our film viewing is done on Sunday and Monday because we are setting the game plan which sets us in a direction. We are in the library pulling out our offense, defense, and special teams; some of the things we want to tweak. What we do during the week, and I do a lot of this, is try to pick up individual match-ups where we can say, ‘Okay, here is a guy that, if you get pressed, the ball is going to you. If it’s off-man, we’re going over here.’ I think that’s what we do more so later in the week; then the big picture stuff. We get all that done on Sundays and Monday.” |