Brian Kelly Transcript: Signing Day

Let's talk about Signing Day. Be hard pressed to find a college football program that signed 20 players today, and so my estimation is this is probably the number one recruiting class in the country if you talk about signed players. You guys can do the research. I'm sure you will dig in deep and look, but we're really excited about it, obviously, to have 20 signed.

Also in December, here at Notre Dame. It's no easy feat. It requires so many people coming together because you have to do the work academically and be given the thumb's up that you're coming to Notre Dame.

So this is a remarkable class not only on the playing field but in the classroom as well. To be committed and sign to Notre Dame means that you have to do the work both on and off the field.

Again, to that end, this is a culmination of work that when we talk about each individual, and the recruiting process. Some we've recruited for as little as nine months but some as long as over two years.

During that process, so many people have been instrumental. I think it's easy to point to our assistant coaches who have done a remarkable job of building relationships and, you know, doing the hard work, the boots on the ground, if you will, in the schools, doing the evaluation, on the phones, building the relationships, but I want to start with our recruiting office and our director, Aaryn Kearney, who sets the plan, if you will, and puts the plan in motion, did an incredible job, and his staff Jasmine Johnson, who handles our operations and our on-campus recruiting. When you visit Notre Dame, you really have to make a strong impression. She does an incredible job.

Our graphics, Chris and Ryan have done great jobs -- we have a great story to tell. It doesn't just have to be pictorial. Within that graphics we have a story that we can tell behind it, and Chris and Ryan have done an incredible job. Katie Meyers, through our social media, again, being able to connect with our student-athletes on a day-to-day basis. She has done an incredible job as well as.

That office has really driven this recruiting process, Mike Elston started the process as our recruiting coordinator, really set the table for where we are today and Brian Polian came in and finished this off, so both of those guys deserve a great deal of credit for coordinating and really driving this in terms of getting our coaches on the road, targeting them.

Dave Peloquin incredible job of pushing us in the right position, who we needed, position groups, working with the limitations that you have relative to scholarships and making sure that we were filling our needs.

And probably some of the more difficult areas, preparing our players for what it's like in the interviewing process for admissions, and Dave does a great job there as well. Don Bishop and Bob Munday from our admissions office. They are on call and meeting with our recruits as they come to campus. I don't know if that's a normal occurrence where you get your director and your vice president meeting with your recruits when they come on campus and to have 20 signs. They are involved in that process.

That says a lot about this class to have Don and Bob involved in it. Adam Sergeant from academic support is here meeting with the families talking about how we are going to graduate their son, and finally Jack Swarbrick, our Athletic Director is intimately involved in everything we do.

It is a coordinated approach to this to get to today. All of those people are working together to make this happen, so no easy feat. A lot of pieces have to come together. They get 20 in December, but really proud of all of them, proud of the work that they've done. I would be remiss not to mention Bill Rees, whose work allowed us to get ahead of it, and we will see that even pay off, you know, as we move into January and February, looking at 19s, 20s, and 21s. I could probably stand up here for another 15 minutes talking about all those that go into this, but the 20th of December, to stand here in front of you with the class that we've put together, you know, it requires all of these pieces coming together today. Really excited about it.

I think seven of the players are early admits. Obviously we feel real good about that, as well, in terms of guys coming in, Bo, Houston, Micah, Jack, Ovie, Jahmir, George will all be coming in early. That will immediately impact our football program. And we're still open for business, as it relates to the December 20th signing period.

Of course, we are going to most assuredly sign more in February as well. A lion's share of the work is complete relative to the committed players. We have expectations of some more things occurring in the next 48 hours and then certainly you'll get an opportunity to hear me again in February with some more signees at the February.

Lastly, what do I like about Signing Day? It's put the commitment back in commitment, and really what that means. No more soft commitments. The charge that I gave to our assistant coaches is that if a player has given us his commitment, we have been committed to them that they're going to sign with us. If not, that's fine, but we're going to keep recruiting that position. So it's really put back into the definition of commitment. If you're committed, there are no, hey, I'm committed, but I'm going to take other visits.

It really truly means a commitment to one university. We have a commitment to you, and we're going to honor that commitment. That's what it's meant to us here at Notre Dame, that's what it's meant in terms of signing 20 today.

We identified those kids that were committed to this university and we went to work on that. For me, that's resonated in this process leading up to today. With that, I'm sure you've got plenty of questions and I'm prepared to answer. Fire away.

No questions? I did such a thorough and complete job in my opening remarks. They weren't really opening remarks it was a bully pulpit maybe.

Q. You did a good job.
BRIAN KELLY: Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

Q. Did the ability of being able to recruit and have an early signing date, did it interfere in any way with the preparations for bowls? How did you work around that senior?
BRIAN KELLY: Interfere. Well, it certainly was a challenge. We had to balance a lot of things. First couple of practices where we were in reading days and exams, we had to have skeleton staffs for our practices. So we didn't have a full staff of coaches at a practice because we had guys on the road. So it was a coordinated effort that we had to go into this process, knowing that we had to prepare our football team for a bowl game, as well as continue to recruit leading up to today, continue to train our football team through exams as well. There was a balancing act that we had to certainly put together.

I wouldn't say interfere as much as we had to be really smart in putting a plan together.

Q. There are some people who voiced an opinion that they weren't sure they liked the early signing date. What is your feeling on it? Is there anything that you would change, would like to see tweaked or anything else like that?
BRIAN KELLY: No, I think the way it's set up right now, it's worked out the way I thought it would. There was going to be a lot of work leading up to this. There are challenges, certainly, but I think anytime there is an early signing date there are going to be challenges. We went about it in a fashion that, you know, if we had some soft commitments early on, we would probably be chasing more players in February.

Maybe that might be the case next year. But the way our class was set up this year and the way we recruit to Notre Dame, you know, it's set up really nice for us this year. For me, the parameters of what has been laid out, everybody knew what they were. So there was no confusion as to what the parameters were leading up to this. It might have fit other schools a little bit better and been more comfortable for others, but there were challenges for everybody across the board.

So some may complain and might have a louder voice, but there are some schools in Hawaii right now, that's a challenge. Some are in the Bahamas, that's a challenge. So there are challenges across the board, but everybody knew what the parameters were going into this. You just work within those parameters.

Q. Do you see the possibility that the February signing date becomes extinct as this goes on, more people will try to sign their classes by December?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, again, I think it's going to come down to what's in a commitment. Let's tray the "hype" out of it. Let's let these young men decide based upon what's in their best interest for their future. Let's take the circus atmosphere away from signing and let's get back to making a decision that's going to be in your best interest for the next forty years of your life.

Q. Brian, how good does it feel from an organizational standpoint and a work load standpoint not to have to go on the road and continue recruiting 20 extra guys?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, it is a huge -- from an organizational standpoint, it allows us to accelerate and reach out into '19 '20 and beyond. You always feel in recruiting, Tim, that you're always a click behind. You're always trying to get ahead of it. This is the first time you truly feel like you're about to get ahead of it for the first time.

Q. I know it worked well for you guys, but by the end of this Saturday, 13 bowl games will have been played so 26 teams were preparing for a bowl game, while trying to hit this mark in recruiting. Can you imagine -- and Notre Dame rarely plays before Christmas -- if you had a game tomorrow or Saturday, how it would have all worked out?
BRIAN KELLY: Certainly more of a challenge, but that goes to what you need to do in the spring and summer leading up to what is a commitment. So I think it comes back to, you know, how you handle commitments. Are they soft commitments? If they are, let them continue to see other schools and move towards the ones that are committed to your university, and I think that goes back to my final comments. I think it clears up a lot of the uncertainty in this process of guys not committed when they should be still visiting other schools and saying that they're soft verbals. That never made any sense to me.

Q. I know you guys as coaches don't pay attention to three star, four star, five star, per se, but you know who offered scholarships to the players you're recruiting. If I asked you to name a couple of underrated players in this class based upon their star ranking or scholarship offers, who would come to mind for you?
BRIAN KELLY: For us it's generally the guys that don't get into profiled national competition. I know everybody knows about him but Phil Jurkovec, for example, right? He didn't get into a lot of national competition. I think he's the best quarterback in the country. He's somebody that, you know, I could put up against any quarterback that I've ever seen, you know. That's one.

Somebody that maybe because of where he is in the country, you know, Tariq Bracy is a young man that I think if he's in a metro area, his recruitment probably blows up, you know, but he's in an area that doesn't get quite the attention, you know, won a state championship, and a lot of people still didn't know who he was. So one, everybody probably knows his name, but he didn't do a lot of the camp circuit, and then one that is not in a geographical center but is an outstanding player. Those two stand out to me.

Q. Brian, can you describe what Mike Elko brings to the table as an evaluator and a guy on the road?
BRIAN KELLY: First of all, recruiting, let's just be honest about what this is about. First of all, it's knowing what you're looking for, right? Clearly making a decision and saying that's who I'm looking for. So many times -- and I've been doing this a long time -- it's the ability to say, that's who I'm looking for and going and getting that young man. It's this angst of, well, I don't know if he can do this. Look, they're all 17! They can't do a lot of stuff, but let's go develop them.

So Mike's ability to say, I know what I'm looking for, that's number one. Then, two, grinding. Getting on the road and grinding it out. Being on the road every single day, being in the homes, knocking on the doors, being in the schools, and grinding it out. Recruiting is hard work. It's just being present and grinding it out. So there's one piece of it. It's being decisive and saying that's who I want, and, two, it's grinding it out.

Now, along the way he's got a great personality, he communicates effectively with that age group of whom we are recruiting, and we've seen that has paid dividends early on.

Q. With Houston Griffith, is he going to be a corner for you? A safety? What do you think?
BRIAN KELLY: I think Houston has the natural ability to play corner for us, but, you know, look, we are going to bring in young men that have the athletic ability to play at corner, but, you know, we're going to develop them and as they progress in our program -- we never close the door on where they can be best suited as they move through the program and look toward a career at the next level.

He could be a corner, he could be -- he may play nickel for us, could be a safety at the next level, but he certainly has the skill set to play corner for us.

Q. I remember a few years ago, Tyler James dragged me out to a Pittsburgh Central Catholic game on a Friday night when you guys were getting ready to play Pitt, and one of your coaches was watching Phil Jurkovec at that point.
BRIAN KELLY: That's correct.

Q. What about him put him on the radar for you?
BRIAN KELLY: First of all, the reviews about him leading his team as a sophomore. At his age. He wasn't a sophomore that was held back, he was a young sophomore that was out there leading his football team against a really good competition.

That was something that we needed to go see, presence, leadership ability, you know, you gotta go see that in person, how he interacts with his teammates when he comes back on the sideline. To see that as a sophomore, it was important for us in this recruiting process of making decisions on quarterbacks that I needed to know more about his make-up and that gave us the first glimpse of who he was and what his make-up was.

Q. The fact that he was such an accomplished basketball player and so dedicated to that and seemed to have long seasons because they were pretty good, is that a positive in your mind or would you have rather him focus more on football stuff?
BRIAN KELLY: No, I'm of the opposite spectrum in that. I love guys playing another sport, competing -- you can't -- you know, there is nothing that can replace the ability to lead and the ability to compete that another sport gives you. When I got a chance to go watch him play basketball, just his drive, his competitive bes, his interact with his teammates, those things you can't get in the gym. Yeah, you can get a little stronger, certainly you can continue to throw and build relationships in one-on-one, but you can't get those traits that separate the good from the great.

Q. I understand there might be even a couple more guys this week, but as you get down to your last three to five players, are you looking for certain positions? Are you looking for best player available? How are you finishing off the rest of the cycle?
BRIAN KELLY: You know, I think defensive back is still in play for us, offensive line is still in play and then best player available. I think I would probably highlight them in that fashion: Defensive backfield, offensive line and then best player available.

Q. In terms of targeting a guy early that you really liked and zeroing in on him, Derrik Allen would be high on that list. Do you remember what your first impression of him was when Elko brought up to you initially?
BRIAN KELLY: He was the first guy that we saw that had the ability to cover man-to-man, play the ball in the air and get the ball down on the ground with his size. That was the trait that we had to have in this class. It was a must, must, must. It was underlined like five times. We have to find this player.

So it was all in on that type of player, and when we saw that trait, it was just -- in terms of our efforts, they all had to be focused in that direction when we saw those traits, coupled with great student, great character, all the other intangibles, it was a home run for us.

Q. I know we spent a lot of time talking about early signing period, but seven early enrollees, which is the most you've had, how significant is that particularly at linebacker position where you are looking to restock?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, look, the early enrollee piece has to come together almost at the same time as our recommendation, and the player being on that track. It doesn't come like this: Hey, there's a linebacker, we're going to tell him to be an early enrollee. Let's be clear on that. There has to be alignment in that fashion. In this instance, for the most part, that happened with the linebacker crew in the same fashion as our recruitment of it, more so than we went and dictated that through the recruiting process.

Q. Big picture, have you gotten -- I don't know if aggressive is the word -- more comfortable with the 85-man limit trying to get ahead of that so you don't find yourself with 79 scholarship players when training camp kicks off?
BRIAN KELLY: Well, it is a reality. You know, our situation here at Notre Dame is we have not been at that 85. So we've been more aggressive this year with that. I never feel really comfortable with it, to be quite honest with you, but I've had to get over that. We could count back to 31 scholarships, that gets me queasy, to say the least. So, yes, to answer your question, we've consciously been more aggressive in that fashion.

Q. You mentioned a little bit what you're still looking for in this class. You signed one defensive end in Justin Ademilola. Do you see the need to get another defensive pass rusher?
BRIAN KELLY: Listen, if we had targeted and profiled the right fit for Notre Dame, we would have taken another pass rusher. We think next year's class is a group of players in there that really fits a lot of the needs and profile of a Notre Dame defensive player at that position. We're not going to take somebody just to take somebody in this class at that position.

It has to do certainly that there is a need there, but if the fit is not there, we're not going down that route unless the right fit is there. We think there is a really strong class in that area next year.

Q. You've addressed the defensive standouts you have in this class. Do you think this is the highest ceiling of a defensive class that you've had in your time here?
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I mean, I think there is no football coach that comes to Signing Day that doesn't feel great about his class, right? They're all singing the praises. Here is what I would say: This is a unique class that in December this group has gotten an affirmative response academically and has the ability to impact immediately. I don't know from a defensive standpoint there are not many of these guys that we go and say these are projects. These are guys that we think can play and academically have been given a thumb's up in terms of the work that they're doing. That's pretty darn impressive in December.

Q. Coach, when you talk about building a championship defense, when you look across the country, one of the key ingredients is kinda just right up the middle --
BRIAN KELLY: No question.

Q. -- playing good defensive tackle. Brought in a good group last year, two guys played, Darnell Ewell is still there. This is the second year in a row, this is the first time you have had two straight years of strong interior play. Can you just talk about Jayson and Ja'Mion.
BRIAN KELLY: First of all, let's start with Ja'Mion. Ja'Mion has the ability to play the shade for us. He has that ability to lockout, hold the point, but also has that quickness at the position. He's going to be a 300-plus player at that position where you've got to have the ability to hold the point in there.

Then Jayson has a little bit more of the length and athletic ability, if you will, to play the three. So they were a great complement in terms of a shade and three out there early on that we saw. We thought they complemented each other very well.

BRIAN KELLY: You've played different schemes over the years. Seems to me this defensive tackle position is one that requires guys that can make plays on their own. Do you feel they have the ability to bring that to the defense?

BRIAN KELLY: I think both of them, if you look at Myron and Kurt. They have similar traits that as time went on, Myron got the jump in his ability to make the plays and make plays early, and Kurt came on early in the year for us. I think you're going to see both these guys have a similar track, where they both are going to have a learning curve, but they're both going to be able to impact what we do at the defensive tackle position.

Q. I know you don't necessarily recruit to replace a guy that's leaving. You don't necessarily recruit to replace seniors, but you're going to Nyles and Greer, next year Te'von will be in his last year of eligibility, Drew is in his last year, so there is a need to meet the depth chart in terms of linebacker. Do you think you have filled that need with regard to that and what you guys do defensively?
BRIAN KELLY: I think there is still some development going on, on our roster, in that position. You're going to see guys develop that are on the roster that may morph into those positions, as well as the young men that we've recruited here today.

I think we've taken the next step at addressing that, but I think you'll see that addressed again next cycle as well.

Q. When you look at a guy like Jack Lamb, Ovie Oghoufo, do you see these guys as fitting into a spot like linebacker or playing multiple positions where there is maybe the best opportunity for them?
BRIAN KELLY: You do a good job of evaluating the personnel, and you can see that they're not just box players. They can play outside the box. They are guys that are extremely athletic. We would rather take them and then begin to hone in on where they can best fit in that defensive structure rather than saying, he's a box player, that's all he can play. These guys give us flexibility to see how they're going to fill out and develop.

Q. You guys played a little bit of a different defense this year at that rover spot. It seemed like Shayne Simon was the guy you keyed in on early on as being -- sore of fitting in that position. Does having seen him play that position for St. Peters, does that make you feel more comfortable that, hey, this guy can project to do what we are going to ask him to do? He had five interceptions this year, 14 tackles for a loss, so he kinda does a little bit of everything.
BRIAN KELLY: Yeah and I think, you know, his ability to pick things up, very smart player. I think when you talk about that position, playing close to the ball certainly helps. His size. Here is a guy that is over 210 pounds already, physically mature but also very smart. I would add that piece to it. Certainly when you can project a player that is closer to that position already makes for an easy reach for us, but even if he was back on the hash more I think we would still feel comfortable with what he can do for us. But, you know, Shayne is an exceptional player and a guy that we feel can compete right away.

Q. You talked about your quarterback, maybe the best in the country, got to have some help. You've got two receivers, Kevin Austin, Micah Jones, two tight ends, Tommy Tremble and George Takacs. Can you talk about those guys and what you feel -- what made them guys-- you went after Micah right away, obviously Kevin was a major priority and even though there was talk about your tight end depth chart you made Tommy Tremble a priority down the stretch.
BRIAN KELLY: Kevin Austin can play all three positions for us. We wanted somebody that has versatility at that position. He can play X, Z, and W. Smooth player, catches the ball extremely well, has great speed. We wanted someone that wasn't going to be pencilled into a position. Micah is more of a boundary player, big, physical, can win one-on-one match-ups. We love that about him and his size, but the combination of those two, obviously we need to continue to recruit at that position. We're hoping to add to that position in this cycle to balance off the receiving crew.

The tight end position, we're losing Durham for sure, so we needed to replace that and then add into this cycle. George and Tommy are terrific athletes that can be in line or they can spread out. They keep fitting the exact profile that we've been recruiting over the last few years at that position.

Q. You guys got two commitments out of Georgia in Derrik Allen and Tommy Tremble. How important was it to maintain a presence in Georgia this year, especially after losing two guys on the previous staff that were recruiting in that state for you?
BRIAN KELLY: You know, I don't know that losing somebody from the staff really hurts us in the state of Georgia as much as -- look, everybody recruits in Georgia. There are players coming out of Georgia from Assumption College, my alma mater that went to the Division II playoffs. Got nobody's response on that! (Laughter.) That's okay. My point being is that it's such a fertile ground in recruiting you just need to be in there, and there's great football players in there.

We've got so many players that we can talk about that came out of there, you know, so, again, I think it's just having a presence and getting back into a very, very good recruiting area for us. We need to have a great presence there.

Q. Being able to watch Phil Jurkovec play as a junior and senior, what have you seen in his development as a passer, as a quarterback.
BRIAN KELLY: Well, he had the finger injury last year so he struggled a little bit with the ball coming out of his hands, made adjustments in the off-season, the ball comes out quickly, with accuracy, great arm strength. This year they spread the field with massive splits and the ball was going all the way out to the numbers with great access and speed. So what we saw in this past year was just a really quick release.

Then we saw the ability to run the offense at the line of scrimmage, get into the right plays, run the football, just a complete control of what was going on out there, really a clinic at times.

Q. You spoke about Mike Elko, what he brings as a recruiter, as a defensive coordinator. What Does Chip Long bring in terms of his ability to recruit as an offensive coordinator?
BRIAN KELLY: Chip has the ability to identify who he is looking for and then cast a net and go to work. Those two are the two new coordinators so there is going to be a lot of questions about them and rightly so. You don't know a lot about them, but that was their reputation coming here as well. That's part of the questions that I would ask in the interviewing process. These guys are good recruiters, they were good recruiters before they got here, and they work really hard at it in this process.

Q. You talked in the off-season about how you sort of refocused yourselves in the role as head coach. Does that have an impact in terms of your outlook on recruiting and did you have any changes in the way you went about recruiting in this last cycle?
BRIAN KELLY: It just made it more important with the December 20th signing date that I was in every home and it was more pressing, you know, to be there and to be on it and to be more aggressive in the process. I think that just required me to be on the road and in those homes, and I kind of liked it better that way, because when you stretch it out to February, then your players are back on campus, you're pulled in a lot of different directions.

I would rather just let's go. It was better for me to focus on recruiting. We obviously had to balance our schedule back here a little bit, but I enjoyed it more so in that we were in a shorter window, and it was just let's get after it.

Q. Brian, obviously you're very high on Phil Jurkovec. Do you think he has the ability at this point to challenge for the starting job right out of the gate in August?
BRIAN KELLY: I want him to challenge. I want Brandon to feel competition, and I'm sure Brandon wants to be challenged. Any great competitor wants that feeling that somebody is pushing him every day and not that Ian Book doesn't, but let's bring in another really good quarterback, a great quarterback. That's our job here at Notre Dame. I'm not doing a good enough job if I don't bring in a great quarterback to challenge the incumbent quarterback. If that threatens Brandon, then he's not the guy I think he is. I'm pretty certain he's going to be excited about Phil being here and the competition.

Q. Who are some of the other guys that you think could challenge for starting jobs?
BRIAN KELLY: That's always a tricky thing, you know, talking about these guys that haven't even graduated from high school. Look, I would tell you that, you know, the defensive players, the safeties, the corners, I think we all know that that's going to be -- that's going to add competition to those ranks that's going to be a healthy situation for us. That's what jumps out at me right away in terms of competition.

Running backs, Jahmir Smith is going to come in and if he's got it, you play freshmen running backs. I would never tell a guy, hey, you're going to redshirt. You let those guys go! And the receivers, to be frank with you, they all get to come in and compete for starting positions, and that's how I've articulated it to them. The DBs come in and compete for starting jobs, wide receivers come in and compete for starting jobs, so all those skill areas, I guess.

It's harder at the offensive line, although we saw it this year with Hamsey, which was an anomaly, if you will, but I think those skill have got to come in and compete for starting jobs.