Ohio State OC Chip Kelly Talks Notre Dame DC Al Golden & Irish Defense
Monday night’s National Championship Game between Notre Dame and Ohio State will feature a battle of wits between two of the sport’s most high-profile coordinators; Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden and Buckeyes offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.
“It's going to be a battle and I think that's the great part of it,” Kelly told reporters on Tuesday. “You have the two best teams in football playing against each other. And it wasn't voted on that these two teams play, it was earned by both teams.
“It's an opportunity to go against Marcus (Freeman) and Al and what they'll put out there defensively and those players. You watch (Howard) Cross and (Jack) Kiser and (Xavier) Watts and the rest of that group play. As a fan, I admire how hard that group plays on defense.”
Golden has certainly earned Kelly’s admiration and respect as well.
“Al Golden does a great job with that defense,” said Kelly. “They mix and match their coverages. I think they're one of the top pass defenses in the country. And it shows. I think they're well coordinated. Their front and back end work really well together. That's a challenge that we're going to have on Monday night.
“They don't just play one coverage. They're going to mix it up. They try to keep you off balance and keep the quarterback guessing. They bring different blitzes and attack your pressures in a really good manner.”
Kelly credited Golden’s background in the NFL for much of Notre Dame’s success on defense this season.
“Being with the Lions and Bengals, has really shown there's a lot of NFL concepts he's running there,” Kelly said. “Their players do a great job of adjusting on the fly, too, because people try to confuse them and line up in different formations and move and things like that, and they always seem to figure it out.”
The obvious storyline heading into Monday is whether the Irish defense, which has relied on playing man-to-man defense all season, can match up with the Buckeyes’ talented receiving corps.
“You look at how much man they play, and the reason they do it is because they can,” Kelly said. “And no one's really exploited that with them. So I think they all can cover.
“It's not like, ‘Well, just stay away from him and throw against this guy.’ I think all of them are really, really skilled. And I think how coordinated it is with the whole group, that they all have an understanding of where they're supposed to be, when they're supposed to be there. And they do a really good job of it.”
Kelly said Ohio State has watched every Notre Dame game this season in addition to the Buckeyes’ matchup against the Irish last year, when Kelly was still head coach at UCLA.
“They played man in every game they've played,” he said. “It's not like they're doing something special in one game over another game. And they played some good receivers. There's some teams they played that have some really talented receivers.
“They've done a great job against everybody, whether it's Louisville or SC, people who have thrown the ball all over the place, they've done a great job in coverage. And the numbers will tell you that.”
Kelly pointed to Cross, Kiser and Watts as bringing important leadership to the Irish defense.
“They've got depth up front, second level and third level,” he said. “They're really smart. You can watch their communication that goes on during the play, and you can see how in tune they are to what the coaching staff is asking them to do.
“So that's a huge challenge for us on Monday going up against a really, really well-coached defense. They've got some really good players that have played a lot of football. I think both teams have guys that have played a lot of football. And that experience has shown through the playoffs.”
Kelly will be interested in seeing how the Irish respond when he puts 11 or 12 personnel on the field.
“We put a personnel grouping in and they have an opportunity to match that personnel and have an opportunity to say, ‘We're going to play it in this grouping,’” Kelly said. “Do we think that match-up is favorable to us or is it favorable to them?
“I think when you look at how Notre Dame does it, they're good. And I think that would be an interesting matchup…That's part of a game that goes on within a game.
“We'll see how they decide that they're going to handle it. And then if it's how we thought it was going to be, then maybe we'll continue that. But it may not be what we thought it was going to be, and then we say, ‘Alright, that's probably not a personnel grouping we're going to use today.’”
Kelly said the competitor in him relishes the challenge..
“You really want to get an opportunity to play against the best,” he said. “We played two SEC teams and got an opportunity to beat them. We played the #1 team in the country and we beat them.
“The next challenge is an outstanding Notre Dame team, and we're excited about the opportunity to go play it.”
He may sound like he has all the answers, but Kelly acknowledged he does not.
“I don't know any coach that ever feels like that. I don't think there's any coach, six days before the national championship that thinks, ‘I got this.’”
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