“This is a hard decision”, said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. However, there are a growing portion – with every defeat – of the Notre Dame fan base that is dissatisfied with Kelly, himself. We’re not going to go and pull the rug underneath the kids at this point in the season.
Advertisement
The 57-year-old VanGorder, who was born in Jackson and grew up in Metro Detroit, was in his third season as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator. “I’ve got to do a better job of finding out what those things are that are putting our football team in that position”. But Saturday it all went south after Kizer’s TD pass to Equanimeous St. Brown put the home team on top 35-28 with 7:46 remaining and seemingly sent a dagger toward the Duke sideline.
“They had some fourth down stops”.
Defensive analyst Greg Hudson, a Notre Dame alumnus, will take over VanGorder’s responsibilities. “Everybody on our staff is on a very public interview”. And then those players that have that intrinsic motivation, that fire within, they will come along with us. “All the players, coaches, everybody”.
It’s too early to tell what Notre Dame’s defense will look like on Saturday against Syracuse at MetLife Stadium, but what’s clear is that a turnaround is necessary – and it’s needed immediately.
“I had time last night to evaluate our current situation and made what I felt to be the best decision for the program”, Kelly said. “But I believe in my heart we have the right kind of people and that’s what you do when you’re the right kind of people”. “And so what I’ll be looking for in particular relative to these tweaks is these guys come at it with a clean slate, and I expect to see them play with a lot more passion and enthusiasm”. In its two previous games, 24-14 and 24-13 losses to Wake Forest and Northwestern, Duke totaled a combined 27 points and 154 yards rushing. We’re all in this together, all the players, coaches, everybody.
Notre Dame lost on a late field goal to Duke 38-35. After that, he spent one year as Georgia Southern’s head coach (2006) and Auburn’s defensive coordinator (2012). Hudson previously served as defensive coordinator at Purdue, East Carolina and Minnesota, as well as assistant head coach and linebackers coach at Florida State. 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. More Information For more on college football, follow Tom Davis on Twitter at Tom101010 and on Facebook at Thomas Davis.
Update: Notre Dame has confirmed the news.
Advertisement
“I thought Greg was the ideal fit to bring that energy level up to where I want to see it. 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”. “There’s going to be some changes that we’re making in terms of how we practice, how we utilize personnel”.
