“What I was looking for in this particular instance – each situation you evaluate it at face value – and what I was looking for, I thought Greg was the flawless fit to bring that energy level up to where I want to see it”, Kelly said during a conference call, shortly after the school announced the change. “Ultimately we trust him, we love VanGorder, and we’re going to continue to follow his lead”.
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“I’m under review as well”.
Although only four games into the season, fans are already guessing whether Brian Kelly will be replaced after the losing season, or if he will be given one more opportunity to prove himself as a coach. “Every job is being evaluated and all coaches jobs are on the line, as well”.
Hudson joined the Florida State staff after spending five seasons as the defensive coordinator at East Carolina (2005-09).
The Fighting Irish hope Hudson can turn their season around on Saturday, Oct. 1 against the Syracuse Orange. The Blue Devils have scored just 27 points combined in losses to Wake Forest and Northeastern the previous two weeks. “I’ve got to execute what I’m doing better”, Kizer said. For the assistant coaches, that is understandable, but Kelly, who is 56-25 in his six-plus seasons with the program, included himself in that group, as well.
Kelly said the school has held disciplinary hearings for four players who were arrested in August on misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession along with safety Max Redfield, who was dismissed from the team.
“You know, we won 10 games (in 2015) and were close to being in the playoffs”, Kelly said.
That score was especially aggravating, given that Notre Dame had just re-taken the lead midway through the fourth quarter. “I mean, we’re all in this together”. I would expect the Irish to be able to handle Duke, which doesn’t have a lot of offensive fire power.
Notre Dame was the last of 128 FBS teams to record a sack this season, which linebacker Nyles Morgan did Saturday against Duke.
He also insisted September 18, a day after a 36-28 loss to Michigan State, that VanGorder, who began working with the Irish in 2014, was the right person to coach his defense. Yet now because Notre Dame refuses to get into a conference, they still have a ton of tough games on the schedule to try and get the season back on track.
Then, in many ways, it got worse. “To be the kind of football team we want to be, we have to eliminate that”, he said. Kelly declined to go into detail about the reasons why it didn’t work.
VanGorder, 57, has been Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator since 2014. “We weren’t flawless by any stretch, but overall, we were executing more consistently than we had been”, Jones said.
“Guys played hard, but we lacked some of the energy and enthusiasm and fun, quite frankly, that you need to have when you’re playing on defense”, Kelly said.
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Asked whether the hiring of Hudson was an interim move or a full-time move, Kelly said he told Hudson “that everybody is interviewing”.
