Kelly dismisses talk of no season, eyes July 1
Brian Kelly on Wednesday evening became the latest coach to dismiss the notion from ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit that a 2020 college football season was unlikely due to the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Hours after first-year University of Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz on a videoconference said, “No offense to Mr. Herbstreit, but deciding who’s going to win a football game on College GameDay is a lot different than getting the world in a panic about whether or not we’re going to play a college football season,” Kelly weighed in on 96.1 FM in South Bend/Mishawaka.
“If anybody can really predict what’s going to happen next week, they should be in the stock market,” Kelly said. “I heard Kirk Herbstreit come out last week and say, ‘No way.’ Kirk does not know what he’s talking about. I mean, really? For him to, you know, talk in those terms, he’s not a scientist. He’s a college football analyst. We’ll let the scientists determine those things.
“We’ll prepare and know what we need to do and put things in play, knowing full well that we’ll need some preparation time. But we’re going to stay positive and prepare as if we’re going to have a season in the fall.”
Kelly struck an optimistic tone and likewise pleaded for a hopeful outlook from the Notre Dame community, urging folks to “stay positive.” The Fighting Irish’s 11th-year head coach, coming off an 11-2 campaign and top-15 national ranking, did cite a “drop-dead” date of July 1 for college football to feasible start largely on time in the fall.
“It would be ideal if we could be back and operational sometime in the middle of June; it’s going to be very difficult to get a spring ball in,” Kelly said.
“I don’t know that there’s any real competitive disadvantage from that perspective. Ideal (start) would be the middle of June. What precautions are going to be needed to take in these situations. Hopefully there’s a test up that is one that maybe the student athletes, coaches and all support staff can take. Then we’ll deal with how we handle spectators. Maybe they have to wear a mask before they go into a game. There’s a lot of things from common sense that we can kind of make this thing happen, if in fact people continue to use good judgment. WE’ve got 80% of the country that is staying at home. If we continue safe distancing, if we use masks, if we continue to not overload our hospitals and our healthcare, I think we have a great chance of getting to that spot. But it’s going to really be incumbent upon us over this next month to be smart and to be safe. And if we do that, I think the realistic and best opportunity for us is the middle of June.
“I think June 15 ideal, I think July 1 is the drop-dead date in the sense that July 1 is got to be the day that we have to start working out by July 1. I think that’s important for us to get our guys in a conditioning manner to play football.”
Kelly on 96.1 FM also shed insight into the coaching staff’s and players’ interactions during this unprecedented time apart. In addition to video technology such as the ZOOM software, Notre Dame also has apps that players have downloaded onto their phones that keep track of various metrics, such as workouts.
“The first thing we did is we built our academic structure where we have responsibility relative to the academic pieces in our academic resource program,” Kelly said. “Individuals that are on SWAT (Spring/Summer Workout Accountability) teams have responsibilities in terms of tutors and the academic resource building and all of those additional responsibilities. And they’re held accountable not only by their position coaches but the SWAT Team leaders.
“We have a unified workout program that is built on resistance bands. Not everybody has the opportunity to get to a gymnasium. If they do or if they have the ability to lift weights in their home, they can supplement some of the things within our resistance-band workouts that Coach (Matt) Balis has put together. But it allows everybody to be accountable and turn in those workouts at the end of the day.”
The isolation hasn’t brought the recruiting process to a halt; rather, Kelly explained, coaches have gotten more personal interactions with players --- digitally speaking, of course.
“We’ve been at it for quite some time here, especially the ‘21 class. We’ve put a lot of time, a lot of effort into building the relationships.,” Kelly said. “We don’t want them to all of a sudden say, ‘We’re ready to make a decision,’ unless of course it’s Notre Dame. If we know they’re going to choose Notre Dame, we’re all for that.
“If they’re saying, ‘We’re ready to make a decision on another school and we haven’t seen Notre Dame,’ we’re obviously saying, ‘Look, complete the recruiting process. Let it play out. Don’t make a decision under duress with the uncertainty of the times. This will pass.’ It’s important that we’ve taken all of this time in building these relationships and it’s important that you complete this recruiting process.”
Technology has aided the coaches’ abilities to deliver that message to prospects --- especially as Notre Dame has continued to recruit both nationally and globally.
“It’s a lot more difficult at Notre Dame because all of our players are scattered throughout the country,” Kelly said. “We’re pulling them out of a geographical area. It’s not like we’re recruiting within three hours of our home base. If we were, it would be a whole lot easier during this time.
“Yeah, it’s a lot more difficult but it requires all of our coaches including myself to be on the phone a lot more, a lot more FaceTime. Lot more interaction with the student-athletes in getting them to complete this process.”
INJURY UPDATE
Kelly said that the Notre Dame program does not have any players recovering from injuries/surgeries who are being set back by this process. Kelly has conducted weekly conversations with the Fighting Irish medical staff to stay updated on the players’ progress.
“We have five players that have been really worked on, 12 total guys that are doing some form of PT (physical therapy),” Kelly said. “Nobody is in a critical care kind of scenario where they’re missing an apparatus or need a piece of machinery that is necessary for them to get their work. A lot of that can be done with resistance bands, a lot of it can be done with their own body weight.
“There was nobody lagging behind where this stoppage, in a sense, would cause anybody to not be prepared and be back with us when we resume. We feel like we’re in a pretty good place there. They’re checking on our guys daily and making sure they have all their needs and if they don’t, we’re sending them what they need. I think we have a pretty good system in place to care for our players.”
INCOMING FRESHMEN PREPARED
While Notre Dame had 10 newcomers arrive in January --- eight freshman signees and two graduate transfers --- the remainder of the Fighting Irish’s 2020 signing class have received workout materials shipped to them by Notre Dame.
“They have the opportunity to be involved with what we’re doing and they have the workout opportunities,” Kelly said. “Some of them have already because of their high school availability, some of them have easier access. We have asked each one of them what they would prefer. But once they have signed a National Letter of Intent, we’re able to send them strength and conditioning information. So each of them have their opportunity.”