Outtakes from Brian Kelly's press conference on Friday afternoon.
On practice access for the media:
“We're going to try to give you an opportunity to learn about our football team. It is not going to be a closed practice situation, although we'll be very concerned with security for our football team given the current topics that are out there today. We want to keep our kids closely in eye's view. We haven't had them with us for very long, so we want to control some things from that standpoint. But we think we're going to give you enough of an opportunity to get to get a chance to know the football going into Purdue as well.”
On learning about Notre Dame as a total package:
“I think the head football coach at Notre Dame is not just the football coach, he's an ambassador for the university. I think I knew that coming in, but that's my personality. I want to be involved in the community, make sure we reach out to our alums that go from the East to the West Coast. I think we did 150, 160 appearances, public relations opportunities. I think that's what's required of the head football coach at Notre Dame.
“But that's not the only thing. The other thing is win football games. One component I thought we made great progress with. I also on campus, which I think is very important, is make certain that our football program, where we're housed in the Gug, became more accessible. We are part of this university. We are not the part of the university, we are one of the great parts of this university. So opening up our end of things was very important as well.”
On spending time with Ara Parseghian:
“I've learned a lot more from Ara outside of that plane ride. I've learned about how special Notre Dame is to him and his family. So I think I would start with how Ara regards Notre Dame and what it means to him and his family. Then the remarkable thing about him at his age in particular, not being actually on the field and coaching, he still has a keen sense of the game, understands what's going on in the spread, no-huddle, the communication system.
Just a remarkable man that he carries such a love and passion for Notre Dame, recognizes its uniqueness. Then if he was up to it, he certainly could coach today because he's got a great understanding of offense, defense and special teams.”
On what parts of the program can still be pushed forward and improved:
“You're always looking for how you can provide your players with a competitive advantage legally. A competitive advantage obviously is allowing them to recuperate quickly, the ability to be well-hydrated, nutrition. A lot of it has to do with the medical end of things. The sports training, nutrition, weight training, all of those things are absolutely crucial. I will always be pushing the envelope, Bill Scholl and Jack know that because they hear it from me every day. They've been wonderful. But we'll keep pushing that envelope because it's so crucial for our players and their development.”
On still having more room to push forward:
“ I think we've made great progress and I think it hasn't been quite like what I would have expected, and that is, ‘Well, that's the way we do it here at Notre Dame.’ To the contrary, I haven't been hit with that. I've been hit with, ‘Well, we've never done it that way, let's give it a shot.’ That's been good for me as a head coach because I know I'm getting met at the other end with not resistance, but, ‘We haven't done it that way, but coach you've done a pretty good job, let's give it a shot.’”
On punishment for players arrested last month:
“We've already handled it internally. We've already addressed it.”
On using Notre Dame’s history as advantage:
“I think one of the areas that I was a bit surprised that we lacked as a team was an understanding of who we were and who we want to be. So the idea of the Fighting Irish, the idea of playing hard for four quarters, the idea of playing anywhere against anyone at any time has been a constant conversation, quite frankly, with our football team. So I believe it to be a benefit. And so if I believe it to be a benefit of who we are, we better talk about it every day. We'll continue to talk about who we are, what our tradition is. I think that's going to allow us to shape our identity as we move through our camp.”
“I think that is the pervasive theme here: let's get back to understanding the great tradition, who we are, how we play the game. We won't go as far as no facemasks, but I will tell you that toughness, that 'Fighting Irish' is certainly the theme that we want to continue to advance forward.
On why he’s the right man for the job:
“Well, I think the jury's still out. I mean, I think I haven't won a football game here. That's a huge part of this. Clearly it's graduate your players. We're off to a good start there. We won the academic achievement award. I didn't have much to do with that. What I've had a lot to do with is really getting out and being an ambassador for the university. I think I've done well in that respect. But the reason that we're having a press conference with everybody here today is about winning football games and doing it the right way. The jury's still out on that one.”
On Dayne Crist’s development:
“I think a lot of it had to do with the fundamentals more than anything else. One thing that we wanted to certainly see him improve on day to day was taking over that offense in a leadership position. Obviously he did that this summer with our seven-on-sevens and our workouts. It was Dayne that was running it. We developed that end. But from a skill standpoint, it was from the spring the detail work, his footwork, his drops, consistency in throwing the football. So that will be work in progress for Dayne. I've heard great reports from the summer relative to his leadership, which is great that we've gotten that developed. Now I think as we get into camp, we'll be really focused on his skill development at the quarterback position.”
On depth behind Crist limiting offensive play calls:
I suppose you could draw that conclusion. I probably would be at this point right now standing in front of you lying if I didn't tell you that we got to protect him, you know. But we can't run into a game going, Oh, my God, we can't do this. I've never coached scared. We're going to be aggressive on offense. But we got to be smart with him as well. We probably can't run him 22 to 23 times in a game. If we do, you know, we probably got some issues because he's running around for his life. So I think it's important that we don't play scared but we have to be really cognizant of the fact that we're inexperienced at that next man in.
On which freshmen could contribute early:
“I think there's a couple. Bennett Jackson has impressed in terms of his workouts, his work volume. Austin Collinsworth has been impressive in his workouts. Certainly both the quarterbacks are going to have to be in the mix in some fashion giving them a real good eye.
I think that other than that, we're in a developmental kind of mode with the offensive linemen and the defensive linemen. But a couple of skill guys. I wouldn't be surprised to see either one of those guys, Jackson, Collinsworth, in the mix to get on the bus.”
On the defensive line depth:
“We have to develop some of the players that are over there. Sean Cwynar has got to come up big for us, Hafis Williams has got to come up big for us, Brandon Newman has to come up big for us. Those are the guys we have to develop. It becomes a vulnerability. Hopefully it turns into a pleasant surprise for us more than anything else.”
