Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've seen this

Ty Webb

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before from Texas and LSU before, but this may be worse. At least Brown talked about Colt getting hurt and Miles just said Bama was a heck of (he probably used words not allowed on this site) a team and didn't make excuses.

Click here

So, what is Kelly trying to say here? The line was ten points, and most smart fans said if both teams played their A games, Bama would blow ND out. The game ended 42-14, and if Bama plays with intensity the whole game, I think CNS could have ran the score up to 49-7 or worse if he wanted. Bama simply had MUCH more talent, and MUCH more elite talent across the board. From the interview:



SBT: You’ve since rolled back your initial assessment a bit about the gap between Alabama and Notre Dame. But when you go back over the BCS National Championship Game, what exactly happened and why did you initially feel the gap between the two programs was so sizable?


Brian Kelly: “I think I miscalculated on the enormity of the game. I felt like playing at Oklahoma, playing at USC in a game that meant going undefeated, playing at Michigan State, just playing here at home before 80,000, that our kids would feel comfortable or would not be out of their element, if you will, playing in that kind of game. It was larger than that. “It definitely was larger than they had anticipated, and partly that would be left on my shoulders, that I didn’t do a good enough job of making them understand that — that they have to play within themselves, that they couldn’t play too emotional, all the things that they did.

“We had (two) penalties on defense on the first five plays. And, quite frankly, playing in it for the first time, we needed some good things to happen for us early on. And none of those things came together for us. And Alabama’s a really good football team. “Throw that into the mix, and you’ve got a problem. “We settled down at halftime and played much more like we had played all year in the second half.”

So, Kelly mentions two penalties on the first drive helping to lead to the downfall. He fails to mention a 27 yard pass to Norwood and a 13 yard run by Lacy on two of the first three plays of the game. That was before a face mask or offsides penalty occurred. He also forgot to mention a 22 yard run up the middle by Lacy on the fifth play from scrimmage for a TD. Did the early penalties cause Alabama to get 4 touchdowns on its first 6 possessions of the first half? Or, two TDs on the first two possessions of the second half, extending the lead to 35 points on both occasions. So, Alabama scored 6 TDs on its first 8 possessions.



SBT: Is there something you can share that you would definitely do different (preparing for the NC game)?


Brian Kelly: “It’s a complicated answer, but I wanted to tackle more (in practices), but I had six offensive linemen. I had to weigh the risk — do I put Zack Martin out there, who just came out of a (protective) boot, and risk really having no chance of winning that football game or do I not go live? “I was not able to do some of the things I would have liked to have done and the complexity of the answer is we weren’t deep enough as a football team to really handle those 42 days. We need more depth. "We’ll be better able to handle that personnel-wise this time around. Obviously, we’ve addressed some shortcomings in personnel through recruiting. So the complex answer is I would have liked to have tackled more. I knew I needed to tackle. I didn’t think we could.”

Do you really need to have a bunch of offensive lineman to practice tackling? Can't you practice tackling with just the defensive players?

Or, is it tougher to tackle when you are playing against an elite OL and RBs? ND was simply used to tackling RBs from Purdue, Navy, Michigan, Wake Forest, Boston College, Pitt, BYU, Miami, USC, and OU's pedestrian running games.

They weren't able to tackle Bama's RBs or WRs the entire game. They needed multiple players to tackle Lacy, Yeldon, Cooper, Norwood, and Jones for most of the game.

As Meyer said on the telecast Bama's skill against ND's skill "it was even close." I doubt they would have been able to tackle UGA, A&M, or LSU's skill players either.



SBT: Were you surprised at some of the numbers you saw from Notre Dame players at the NFL Combine?

Brian Kelly: “Not really. They’re a tad slower, but they weren’t far off from what our projections were. Now, I think they’ll do much better at Pro Day. They’re always going to be a tad slower at the combine, because of nerves and anxiety and the meetings and the interviews and the whole process. “They’ll all show better numbers than they showed at the combine, but they weren’t far off.”

Later in the interview Kelly acknowledges that MAYBE his players weren't that good. Te'o won a ton of individual awards (somehow beating out players like Clowney and Jarvis Jones for some), but I don't think he would start for a couple of SEC teams. Mosley was MUCH better than Te'o this year, and he'll be playing in college again next year.
 
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Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

Well, that game wasn't as close as the score says. We lost intensity at halftime and knew we had it in the bag. Then we went up 35-0 and put it on cruise control. If he truly believes what he said then he lied during halftime when he said it was all Alabama. I mean, we knew that it was all Alabama, but he may have just been talking and just couldn't believe it himself. They'll learn one day.
 

FriendlyIrish

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

Honestly it doesn't seem like he's really making excuses. Did he say the penalties were the sole reason? I don't think so. Just reaching here IMO. He knows the talent gap is wide, and we are recruiting as such.
 

rgw

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

We were up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. Up 21-0 within seconds of the start of the 2nd quarter. Ended the first half by driving down the field to go up 28-0. The defense created a turnover to stop a good start of the half drive by Notre Dame, Alabama immediately went down field and scored. Notre Dame finally got on the board, Alabama scored again.

The biggest break Notre Dame didn't get was the refs correctly calling kick-catch interference to prevent a chance of getting a cheap score off a bad call to tie the game early despite getting outplayed from the kickoff.

I don't think he's saying, "if we could have just had one or two things go differently, we would have had us a good game."

Clearly a 35-0 deficit before scoring is indicative that things were going wrong all over the place. The truth is that they just found out that beating Michigan, USC, and Stanford in a tight game isn't really going to prep you for a game against Alabama. Stanford is probably the only team we wouldn't have beaten worse than Notre Dame.
 
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FriendlyIrish

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

We were up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. Up 21-0 within seconds of the start of the 2nd quarter. Ended the first half by driving down the field to go up 28-0. The defense created a turnover to stop a good start of the half drive by Notre Dame, Alabama immediately went down field and scored. Notre Dame finally got on the board, Alabama scored again.

The biggest break Notre Dame didn't get was the refs correctly calling kick-catch interference to prevent a chance of getting a cheap score off a bad call to tie the game early despite getting outplayed from the kickoff.
Mike Pereira disagrees with you.

No one is denying that you guys dominated us, and I don't think Kelly was either. He put the game on HIS back, like a good head coach would do. He is recognizing his mistakes, and what he could have done better. He's not going to go out and say "Alabama players smoked us, we just can't compete." What do you expect him to say?

Good lord.
 

rgw

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

I mean I agree with you. He's got to coachspeak around the questions. He gains nothing by throwing his players underneath the bus.
 

CrimsonProf

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

Mike Pereira disagrees with you.

No one is denying that you guys dominated us, and I don't think Kelly was either. He put the game on HIS back, like a good head coach would do. He is recognizing his mistakes, and what he could have done better. He's not going to go out and say "Alabama players smoked us, we just can't compete." What do you expect him to say?

Good lord.
I believe MP is a NFL man anyway, so I'm not really concerned with what he thinks on the matter. Rogers Redding noted that it was the correct call - Musberger's histrionics notwithstanding - and from there Alabama continued to take care of business.
 

rgw

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

Yeah exactly. I'm sure he's heard noise on that soundbite from the faithful. He's not going to belabor the point and just coachspeak it until the season starts (the media gets something new to talk about).

There is simply no reason for him to continue to pound the "we got rocked" narrative anymore than his exceptionally candid halftime interview in January. The players aren't going to respond to that line. Focusing on little things reinforces the concept to the players. No use in letting single loss lose the whole program.
 

RollTide1224

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

Mike Pereira disagrees with you.

No one is denying that you guys dominated us, and I don't think Kelly was either. He put the game on HIS back, like a good head coach would do. He is recognizing his mistakes, and what he could have done better. He's not going to go out and say "Alabama players smoked us, we just can't compete." What do you expect him to say?

Good lord.
Pereira is an NFL guy. Rogers Redding the head of College Officiating said during the broadcast that it was the correct call to throw the flag.

I think Kelly should question his gameplan more than his preparation. He never made an attempt to run the ball at any point which you have to do against Alabama whether it works or not. There were also some odd passing calls in the game. Also the whole whoever makes the most mistakes will win the game thing never made much sense to me. I think he was in over his head with a less talented team...not a good combo.
 

davefrat

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

I believe MP is a NFL man anyway, so I'm not really concerned with what he thinks on the matter. Rogers Redding noted that it was the correct call - Musberger's histrionics notwithstanding - and from there Alabama continued to take care of business.
you could really tell how mad mushbooger was when that went our way and he was petulent towards redding when he said it was a good call.
 

FriendlyIrish

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

Pereira is an NFL guy. Rogers Redding the head of College Officiating said during the broadcast that it was the correct call to throw the flag.

I think Kelly should question his gameplan more than his preparation. He never made an attempt to run the ball at any point which you have to do against Alabama whether it works or not. There were also some odd passing calls in the game. Also the whole whoever makes the most mistakes will win the game thing never made much sense to me. I think he was in over his head with a less talented team...not a good combo.
I agree with you. I don't think he was COMPLETELY in over his head, but I do think he didn't handle it the best he could have, in more than one sense. He knows that the talent gap is wide, and is starting to recruit at that level. He's said it so many times, I think in the interview he was just taking a different approach. I like BK and the fact he is willing to see and analyze his own mistakes as a coach.

And the two throws to Eifert against Milliner still haunt me to this day. Cierre Wood has said multiple times he didn't understand why we didn't run the ball more.
 

rgw

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

To be fair, if I'm a coach looking at Alabama tape I'm probably looking to pass on early downs and run just enough to maintain the appearance of balance. 2010 Auburn couldn't run on us, Cam had to air it out in that comeback. Tebow never really killed us with his feet either. LSU and Manziel have basically been the only guys to run on us with sustainable success over the last 4 years.

I feel like Notre Dame had a really poor selection of first-down passes in the first half. Eifert is a beast and will be a great pro but I don't think isolating him on the perimeter against the sideline boundary was high percentage. If you're going to go pass-centric because you know your team is going to struggle to establish the run, the passes need to be high percentage. Start short, build up to the over-the-top while calling enough draws and plunges to keep the defense honest. The most maddening thing in the TAMU game was how they'd abused any loose coverage on slot receiver with stick routes. It was only a short gain but it was as good as a run. They pretty much got all their rush yards off Manziel scrambles but Swope practically made their run-gains with those short catches.
 

RollTide1224

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Re: Kelly and Notre Dame media are still making excuses for the blowout! We've see

I agree with you. I don't think he was COMPLETELY in over his head, but I do think he didn't handle it the best he could have, in more than one sense. He knows that the talent gap is wide, and is starting to recruit at that level. He's said it so many times, I think in the interview he was just taking a different approach. I like BK and the fact he is willing to see and analyze his own mistakes as a coach.

And the two throws to Eifert against Milliner still haunt me to this day. Cierre Wood has said multiple times he didn't understand why we didn't run the ball more.
The goofiest call was the 4th down throw 30 yards down the field. There were many head scratching things in that game. I think the lack of commitment to running it and the whoever makes the most mistakes is going to win was Brian Kelly somewhat acknowledging ahead of time that he didn't have a very good chance of winning the game.

I've liked Kelly in all of the interviews I've seen with him, I just think he might've fallen victim to the over thinking the game with the amount of time to prepare. Notre Dame certainly didn't play the brand of football on offense that they had all year and they never really even attempted to.
 

rgw

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I think Golson was way off that game. Sometimes coaches take the blame for things that really are on the players. That bomb on 4th down may have been a misread by him or his receivers underneath we misreading the coverage and not playing themselves open. He was probably coached to look short them throw it deep towards the sideline all bowl practice leadup. I mean, TAMU and UGA really popped some big over-the-top stuff and sideline stuff typically is low turnover risk.
 

JPT4Bama

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Look it wouldn't have made any difference if ND ran the ball or had it delivered by UPS. They were overmatched every step of the way. Coaching included. Maybe after 3 or 4 more recruiting classes like this year ND will be ready for real prime time and not just TV hype. This is what it takes to compete with Bama these days, at least for now.

No offense to Friendly Irish but most of us here were just sick of watching the phony PR job done by NBC and ESPN on your team and how evenly matched etc or that Manti was something special when we all knew he was not.

We may not be as smart as ND fans but one thing we know is football which is why so many of us were predicting a blow out. It was not just fan bluster.
 

bamachile

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Meh. Standard interview stuff, I think. He's got a team to coach, and he needs to frame his mind and theirs toward going forward and getting better. No news here.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I must be missing something - I didn't get the idea of whining or excuses at all. His point was accurate about them needing better than those two penalties, but it's not like he suggested that lost them the game.

I've yet to hear an Irish fan even subtly suggest they should have won. What's funny to me is that Kelly looked shell- shocked at halftime and when he suggested their chance of winning was only if Alabama didn't come back to play he was butchered in media for giving up. I thought it was the most honest answer I'd ever seen.

I won't pick on the OP but sometimes some of us here seem to take anything less than bowing at our feet as disrespect towards the Tide. It isn't. If someone says they think aTm will best us don't take it personally.
 

cuda.1973

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They could have used the ref crew that did the BB game, down in Red Stick, a few weeks back, and we still would have won.

Y'all lost.................you now have 39 years to stew over it. How does it feel? (Terrible, I hope.)

Seriously, the game only highlighted how much you guys have to improve, to really compete, for a BCSNCG. Pretty sure about half of the SEC teams would have beaten you, as well. Simple as that. Also shows U$C, Stanford, and Michigan are in the same boat. None of them will win it, any time soon.
 

rgw

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FriendlyIrish has been a great poster. I hope y'all aren't directing this towards him. Especially considering you really have to take some mental leaps to interpret Kelly's comments as bargaining with the truth of the events.
 

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