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Controversy, losing at Notre Dame could cost Brian Kelly his job
Eric Hansen / South Bend Tribune
From The Detroit News: Controversy, losing at Notre Dame could cost Brian Kelly his job | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Eric Hansen / South Bend Tribune
South Bend- Just nine weeks ago, the buzz was so thick, so persistent, so laced with both angst and hope.
Is Brian Kelly the guy?
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It's a question that needs little context, even if you're the most casual of Notre Dame football fan. And despite a train wreck of a defensive game plan at Navy and perhaps the most unpopular play call of this century the following week against Tulsa, there is no definitive answer.
That's right, if you're giving Irish first-year head football coach Brian Kelly an in-term grade, it still must be an incomplete ... with maybe a stern note sent home to his parents. A true test of where a coach is taking a program happens when he meets his first puff of adversity.
What's happened to Kelly in the past week and a half goes well beyond a puff. More like an avalanche, and a good portion of it is self-inflicted.
In the broader, emotion-extracted spectrum of where the program stands at the moment, all the things that made Kelly seemingly a good fit are still in play - extensive knowledge of both sides of the ball, 19 previous years of head coaching experience at the college level, a long history of successful player development.
Conversely, all the things that made him a question mark are in play too - Can he be the closer in recruiting that ND needs? How will his assistants stand up to the exponential burst of daily scrutiny? Will the pressure of the Notre Dame job infect Kelly's ability to make sound decisions?
The wild card is the ongoing investigation of the tragic death of team videographer Declan Sullivan and who and where that evidence will connect to. While the probe progressed Tuesday, the team practiced outdoors in Notre Dame Stadium.
Full plate of problems
As Notre Dame (4-5) continues to slog toward its only open Saturday of the season, here's a bye week six-pack of what Kelly's world looks like.
1. Crist knee-deep in crisis?
For those who have posted their postmortems on Notre Dame junior quarterback Dayne Crist's Irish career, here are some points to consider.
Crist's pre-injury conditioning, his history of returning from reconstructive surgery on a torn ACL well ahead of schedule and the decision to have surgery the very next day after the injury all weigh in Crist's favor, according to Christopher Stulginsky, a physical therapist in Charlotte, N.C. The immediacy of Crist's surgery cuts down on the likelihood of scar tissue.
A story about Crist's injury/surgery/rehab (Injury Spotlight: An Overview Of Notre Dame Quarterback Dayne Crist's Knee Injury) is posted on Stulginsky's website.
Crist suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee Saturday during ND's 28-27 loss to Tulsa. The article highlights some other athletes who have successfully recovered from that particular injury.
Stulginsky also pointed out, in a telephone interview, that Crist's recovery from this injury should be easier than his recovery from a torn ACL in his right knee on Halloween 2009. He also said it was a blessing that the injuries didn't occur on the same knee.
It is Stulginsky's experience that there will not necessarily be a loss of speed, mobility or agility when Crist returns to full health.
It's not like Crist will be required to run like or as often as, say, Michigan's Denard Robinson when he reconnects with Kelly's spread offense.
In Kelly's first season at Cincinnati, in 2007, starting QB Ben Mauk rushed for 377 yards on 99 carries for the Bearcats (10-3). But in 2008 and 2009 - UC's two BCS seasons, starting QB Tony Pike ran for only 47 yards on 56 carries in '08 (11-3) and six yards on 31 carries in 2009 (12-1). He missed time with injuries both seasons.
In eight games this season and a tad bit of a ninth, Crist ran for 74 yards on 52 carries with a team-leading four rushing TDs.
Finally, Crist's poster child for hope has to be Jason White. The former Oklahoma quarterback underwent reconstructive surgery for an ACL tear on one knee in 2001 and on the other in 2002.
In 2003, he won the Heisman Trophy.
2. Rees' piecesWhat new No. 1 quarterback Tommy Rees has done best in his fledgling Irish career is exceed people's expectations, including Kelly's.
Rees, an early enrollee, barely played in the Blue-Gold Game last spring and was clearly the No. 3 QB out of 3 coming out of spring with a chance to fall to No. 5 after classmates Andrew Hendrix and Luke Massa landed on campus in the summer.
Instead, he kept nudging upward on the depth chart and now has reached the top. He completed 33 of 54 passes in relief of Crist Saturday for 334 yards, with four touchdowns and three interceptions.
"I think Tommy was the first Notre Dame freshman quarterback to throw for four touchdown passes, so clearly he's a quarterback we can win with," Kelly said. "Moving forward, we can clean up some things and help him in certain situations.
"Our game plan was established. He had to run some things that were maybe a little out of his league, but he handled himself very well, and I believe, moving forward, we can play winning football with him."
Playing a team that has built its defensive game plan around Rees will be a different, not necessarily harder or easier, challenge than coming in off the bench, however.
And Utah's pass defense is in a different stratosphere from Tulsa's. In fact, the Utes are the best pass defense the Irish have faced or will face this season (23rd nationally in pass-efficiency defense). Tulsa represents the worst (98th).
3. Plan CWhile junior Nate Montana assumes the No. 2 QB role, freshmen Massa and Hendrix will get their longest look this week since they arrived on campus.
One of them will be the No. 3 signal-caller, moving forward. The other goes back to scout-team duty.
"We will whittle it down to one (this week)," Kelly said. "If we lose another quarterback, they would have to be ready to play."
4. The kick that wasn'tA couple of final postscripts on Kelly's decision to have Rees throw into the end zone with 42 seconds left, where his pass was promptly picked off, versus kicking what could have been a game-winning 36-yard field goal: A total of 118 teams in the 120-team Division I-A (Football Bowl Subdivision) have missed at least one field goal this season. The two that have not? Oklahoma State (16-of-16) and Notre Dame (13-of-13).
Normal PAT/field goal snapper Bill Flavin suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the first quarter of the Tulsa game and has since undergone surgery.
But backup snapper and starting center Braxston Cave was able to come in and execute two successful snaps on PATs after Flavin left the game.
5. Notable numbers Notre Dame's punt return coverage fell from its No. 1 national ranking all the way down to 43rd after the Tulsa game. The Golden Hurricane replaced the Irish in the top spot.
The Sagarin computer rankings have Notre Dame at No. 58 this week. That would make them the third-best team in the Mid-American Conference (behind Northern Illinois and Temple) and fourth-best in Conference USA (behind Central Florida, East Carolina and Tulsa).
Big East basketball brethren Villanova, which plays football in Division I-AA (FCS) is 55th.
Notre Dame home games are averaging 3 hours and 23 seconds in length this season. That's tied for 12th-longest in Division I-A (FBS), though five teams ahead of the Irish were involved in overtime or multiple-overtime games and a sixth, Troy, had a two-hour lightning delay factored into its average.
The Irish home games are six minutes longer than their road games, but four minutes shorter on average than last year's home games, which included a contest that went into overtime and one that went into double-OT.
The Irish must win two of their final three games for Kelly to avoid the worst record in a debut season in Irish history. That distinction is currently shared by Gerry Faust (5-6) in 1981 and Lou Holtz (5-6 in 1986).
6. An opportunity in crisis.
Kelly's favorite mantra and practice since arriving in South Bend last December has been to build a football team that's mentally tough.
And now look what's on his own plate - an opportunity to show off his own mental toughness at close range.
He has been backed into only a couple of corners in his career, but never with the lights shining this brightly on every flaw. Will the template apply to a stage this big?
We're about to find out.
From The Detroit News: Controversy, losing at Notre Dame could cost Brian Kelly his job | detnews.com | The Detroit News
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