NOTRE DAME, Ind. - After dropping its first two games of the season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team can do nothing but look forward and work to get the 2011 season back on track. For head coach Brian Kelly, his task is keeping spirits high and working to correct the mental mistakes that have plagued his football team through the season's first two games.
With the No. 15 Michigan State Spartans (2-0) coming to town, the Irish will have to bounce back quickly if they want to ensure they do not fall to an 0-3 record that eliminates what little BCS hopes still remain.
“I’m certainly disappointed where we are at this point in terms of the wins, but I like our football team,” Kelly said during Tuesday’s press conference. “I like our guys. I like the way they compete. I like the way that they prepare. But as I told them after the (Michigan) game, you know, the one stat that really matters for me is the turnover takeaway, and there’s a direct correlation to percentage of winning when you turn the ball over.”
“There’s no stat for me that tells the story more than that,” continued Kelly. “We’ve got to take care of that, and then we’ve got to continue to do the things that we do on a day-to-day basis, taking care of our responsibilities as student-athletes.”
When a football team with such lofty expectations comes out and loses its first two games, the call for change is sure to follow. Questions will be raised about benching players who might be struggling, and possibly putting some of the young players on the field becomes a common sentiment from all directions.
Kelly does not believe he has the wrong personnel on the field, and moving forward he plans to continue sticking to the plan that has been put in place. According to the Irish coach, the problem is not the specific players being used or the way his team goes about preparing. His team just needs to eliminate the mental mistakes to get on the winning ledger.
“I think that we’ve played the very best players right out of the gate,” Kelly said in response to the possibility of personnel changes. “I don’t think this has been a situation where the other guy is not ready to play, you know what I mean, and now let’s get him in there because we’re 0 and 2. I just don’t see it that way.”
“I don’t see any need to make any drastic moves or change,” he continued. “We’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing, and we’ve got to get our players and coaches to all coach and play better.”
The reason for Kelly’s optimism, and his determination to stay on track, is the fact Kelly believes his team has yet to be defeated by an opponent. Notre Dame is not 0-2 because they lack talent or ability. Kelly's team is 0-2 because its continues to make devastating mental mistakes, in all three facets of the game, that are allowing inferior opponents to come out victorious over the Irish.
This optimism about the potential of his football is why Kelly’s message has remained consistent, and it is why his football team remains confident in their ability to quickly get the season back on track.
“They’re not happy where they’re at,” Kelly said of his team. “The coaches are not pleased with our performance. We’re all in this together, you know; it’s not, hey, they did this and we’re smart, they’re not. I mean, we’re all in this together. I’m 0 and 2.”
“But I tell them this: I said, I really believe that you haven’t won a game yet, but you haven’t been beaten,” continued Kelly, who now stands 8-7 as the Notre Dame head coach. “We got beat by Michigan last year. As much as I don’t like to say it, they beat us last year. We’ve really had a hand at beating ourselves, and that’s the big difference.”
“If we do not beat ourselves, we’ve got a chance to be the kind of football team that we all believe that we can be,” Kelly concluded.
Despite the two tough losses, Kelly sees his team coming together as it seeks to pick up a big win this weekend over the Spartans.
“I can see it,” Kelly said of his team’s response to its rough start. “I’ve coached almost 250 football games. I can feel and see a football team coming together. They’ve got to take care of the football. They’ve got to execute better, and they will. I know it’s just a matter of time for them.”
Part of Kelly’s confidence has to do with the things he has seen from his football team. The 0-2 record is really what matters, but that does not mean there have not been some good performances from his football team, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
“When you look at the things that they’ve done offensively, against South Florida and against Michigan, two bowl teams, that’s 1000 yards offensively,” Kelly said, noting the 1021 yards of offense the Irish have racked up through two games. “We haven’t put the points on the board in those red zone areas where we need to. So there’s a lot of confidence.”
Notre Dame’s struggles this season are similar to what fans saw from Kelly’s team a season ago, as the Irish began the season 1-3, losing three games in a row after opening the season with a victory over Purdue. After winning three straight games, Notre Dame again suffered two devastating defeats to Navy and Tulsa. Notre Dame’s 2010 season seemed to be over, but Kelly’s team rebounded and responded well, winning the final four games of the season.
The key to that rebound was getting back to basics, eliminating mistakes, and sticking to the plan. The result a win streak that included victories over Utah, USC, and Miami. Kelly hopes to tap into his team’s resiliency, but also believes that to build a program a coach has to be consistent in his approach and with his message.
“You stay the course,” Kelly said in response to how he plans to get his team through its 0-2 start. “I know this sounds cliché for everybody, but when you’re building a football program, not just a team, you have to be consistent with your approach, and I believe in my approach.”
“I believe in the things that I’ve seen tangibly occur in my tenure of 21 years of being a head football coach,” said Kelly, who has a 179-64-2 record during those 21 years. “We’ll keep doing the things we’re doing, and our players will continue to play hard, and that’s the great thing about them. They compete, they love to play, they practice hard.”
“I like our players, I like where we’re going,” continued Kelly. “I know you’ve got to win; I get that. But we’re on where I believe we should be. We should have obviously taken care of the football better, made a couple of plays here or there, coached a little bit better. We’re all disappointed. It’s not acceptable to lose, especially at Notre Dame.”
“We’ve just got to clean up the things on Saturday, and that will occur.”
