Brian Kelly Is Pleased With Notre Dame's Camp Progress
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was happy after Thursday’s practice, which was open to the media. Happy isn’t a characteristic often associated with the football coach of a major college program, especially at this point in fall camp.
Words like concerned, dissatisfied, and irritable come to mind for a preseason analysis. It's their nature to be worried.
But it struck me that Kelly is in a good place with this team.
The potential exists for a very good defense, quarterback transfer Jack Coan looks like he’ll be a good bridge from the Ian Book days, and the skilled players, particularly the wide receivers, appear to be an upgrade from 2020. The one obvious area of concern is at offensive line, which lost four starters.
Here are some topics Kelly addressed.
Quarterback: Kelly said that Coan was “accurate” and there was no drop off in that department from Book. He called him “smart” and said his command of the offense is good for someone who just came this past spring. Coan made quick reads, throwing the ball out of bounds on purpose at least once during practice. It doesn’t look like Coan will be ready to tuck it and run as quickly or as effectively as Book was. Kelly said that since Coan came from a drop back play action offense, he needs to learn a “little bit more of the shotgun, quick mechanics and ball coming out of his hand (mechanics). He also needs to have a “little quicker footwork.”
On the defensive line: The defensive line had several sacks and multiple quarterback pressures as well as stopping running backs behind the line of scrimmage. Kelly said they’ll have lots of flexibility with the line: “I’m not going to get into the details of it, because you guys got to see a lot there today and we hope that, obviously, we don't have a scouting report out there. But I think it speaks for itself, right? We're gonna move guys around and they're gonna be difficult to block.”
On what the team needs to work on in the next couple of weeks: “When you get to this point where you've just finished installing, you kind of want to know go into this week and see where your strengths and weaknesses are so you can start to address those. We were just on this treadmill of install, and get the installation in and situational work and preparing for two minute and the goal line. It’s been putting it all together. That question could be better answered maybe middle to late next week. Does that make sense? We're putting this thing together, so it's kind of hard to really assess it at this point.”
On the offensive line: "You guys have seen enough practices to kind of get a sense that it is kind of shaping up to where it was today. But you guys have kind of seen the rotation. Blake (Fisher) is out there at left (tackle), Zeke (Correll) has been in at left guard, and then (Jarrett) Patterson, and (Cain) Madden and (Josh) Lugg. (Michael) Carmody have been rotating in there. We're kind of settling into that rotation. I think Andrew Kristofic has done some nice things and Tosh Baker has done some nice things and (John) Dirksen has done some nice things, but I think you guys can kind of see how that is shaping up. We'll continue to refine that and continue to work with the group that you've seen out there.”
And finally, why Kelly is in a good mood.
He genuinely believes it’s been a good camp so far.
“I like the team. I like the way they come to work,” he said. ”They understand our process. Look, if your process has been established and the standard of the way you do things every day has been met and exceeded, you feel really good because you know it works. Now we're gonna have to go make plays and there'll be some tight situations and things will have to happen, but I think you know going in that when they meet and exceed the standards that have been set in this program, you feel pretty good about your football team. Now the quarterbacks got to do this and the defense has got to do that, and that's just playing the game. You got to go play the games, too. But overall, this group has done all the things necessary to prepare for having a great season."
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