Brian Kelly Notebook | 8.16
Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly spoke to Jack Nolan following Friday’s practice.
On game situation work on Friday:
“We’re still giving our team the opportunity to go over these kinds of situations because once you get to an opponent, you’re working on the game plan. You need all these situations so you can go over them and repeat them to get your players coached up on what can happen during a game.
“Today was our black zone coming out and blue zone coming in. You get goal line, short-yardage and we wanted to see some different situations where we could challenge some of our younger players.
“It was a good scrimmage again. It was a thud practice and we’ll scrimmage tomorrow. Guys are committed to doing all the little things to watch some film and clean up some things.”
On the month being long:
“Each day is something different. Today, they’ll go into film study and it won’t be the same as yesterday. They will be looking at our short-yardage offense and the defense will be looking at short-yardage defense.
“Each day, we give them something different that is situational and unique. Today, it was two-point defense and getting our special teams out there with the clock running. I try to make sure we have something different in the game of football that will make a difference in winning and losing. It keeps those guys engaged as to what the next thing is.”
On Saturday’s scrimmage in front of season ticket holders:
“We'll give them an opportunity to see the team in a practice format. We’ll finish up with a live scrimmage. It will be lively. We’ll be tackling and it will be live. Our guys will be on display.
“It will be our last scrimmage with being two weeks out. We’ll have a couple more tackling situations, but not to the length and depth as tomorrow will be. Our guys know that and they will have Sunday off. It’ll be an important day for them.”
On practicing in the stadium:
“We practiced a little bit of our game day pregame routine today. Going into the stadium, they know about protecting the house. We’ve played well at home and we have seven home games this year.
“Getting into that routine and in the stadium is a different feel. It’s a game-like feeling. Our guys will be excited.”