“Sloppy turnovers, kick-off return for a touchdown, and the inability to mount anything consistently throughout the game”. The student section chanted “Fire VanGorder”, referring to defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder.
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Note: This story will be updated with additional comments from Brian Kelly’s Sunday teleconference.
All along the way missed tackles were sprinkled in with enough regularity to press Kelly about his coaching leadership on defense.
“He has given me the keys”, Kizer said, per the Chicago Tribune. “We should’ve won the game”. We were a play away, maybe two plays away from being in the playoffs previous year. This is not part of where I’d thought we’d be. We’re not going to go and pull the rug underneath the kids at this point in the season.
Notre Dame fans have gotten what they wanted.
Notre Dame now ranks 103rd nationally in total defense, 101st in scoring defense, 104th in yards per play, 96th in rushing defense and 87th in passing defense. His next season was statistically better (37th), but this fall, the Irish have been among the nation’s worst (109th).
“Poor execution. Poor, poor execution”, Kelly said. Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the 19 early in the fourth quarter and failed, said he didn’t hesitate to let Reed attempt the field goal, saying the team had confidence in him. Those that don’t, we’re going to leave them along the side.
Hudson had joined the Irish defensive staff in June and has coordinator experience at Purdue, East Carolina and Minnesota, in addition to serving as assistant head coach and linebackers coach at Florida State. The Irish have just one win in their first four games against Nevada, so it’s fair to ask whether or not Notre Dame was as good as their preseason ranking.
“Obviously, this is a hard day for our coaching staff, but I’m excited and honored about the opportunity that Coach Kelly has afforded me”, Hudson said in a release earlier Sunday. “So everybody’s got a chance to continue in their roles, and we’ll all have that very public interview as we play each and every week”.
Most people would agree that Notre Dame starting the year at No. 10 was a bit high. Since the Irish don’t play in a conference, there’s no Plan B. After losing two of their first three games, the Irish were no longer contenders for the CFP. So, if you want to play for me moving forward, I don’t care what your résumé says, I don’t care if you were a five-star (recruit), you had a hundred tackles or 80 receptions or 30 touchdown passes, you better have some damn fire and energy in you.
“I need to see guys playing the game like kids, and not so mechanical and robotic”, he said. “If one goes down, the next has got to step up. That means that we’ve got to tweak some things”. “From a different perspective, different terminology in terms of what has not been leaned on heavily, in terms of front s and coverages, but it is already installed”.
“So there’s a vast library”. There is a lot there. “I believe in my heart that we have the right kind of people, and that’s what you do when you’re the right kind of people”.
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– At the ACC Kickoff in July, Edwards was asked about a proposal that college football do away with kickoffs, that the play is too risky.
