Assistant coach Tony Alford attributes that message, one drilled into the consciousness of his running backs, as the reason for their success with avoiding fumbles in recent years.
Last season, Irish finished with an NCAA-best two lost fumbles by their running backs. In 2012, the first lost fumble came in the overtime win against Pittsburgh when Cierre Wood reached for the goal line. In 2011, the stable of backs fumbled five times while only losing two.
“You ask your kid why they don’t touch the stove, because it burns,” Alford said. “It hurts. You want to play, don’t put the ball on the ground. It’s a pretty easy concept.”
Alford is hardly the only coach across the country that has threatened playing time over the issue. So why have his running backs accounted for so much success — Iowa State running backs twice went a full season without a lost fumble with Alford as their position coach — when it comes to maintaining possession?
“I don’t know,” he said. “You’d have to talk to them about that. I think in a lot of times like that you get what you stress. That is a huge, huge thing for me and always has been in my career of coaching. I’ve been very fortunate with guys that have taken to that. I think it becomes a badge of honor they carry into the room each week. We may not do [another area] well, but we certainly can do this. And they pass that along. The older guys pass that along to the younger guys and it becomes kind of how we function within the ranks of what we’re doing.
“Knock on wood it’s worked so far. Hopefully it will continue.”
In practice, Alford consistently opts for just one ball security drill. He has a running back line up and run 10 yards with the ball in his arm while a teammate tries to jar it loose from behind.
“We drill and we talk every day about ball security and ball leverage and taking care of the football because you’re carrying an entire football team under your arm at any given time that you have the ball,” he said. “[Fumbling] is not okay. Every now and again it happens, but that’s not okay. At any juncture, at any capacity, that’s not okay.”
Tarean Folston
Tarean Folston did not lose a fumble as a freshman in 2013.
Amir Carlisle led the Irish in rushing in the first two games of the season before coughing up the football with the team leading by seven points in the fourth quarter at Purdue last September. He didn’t receive a single carry the rest of the game and earned just 17 in the team’s final 10 games.
“Sometimes it’s going to go well for you, sometimes it’s not,” said Carlisle, who has since been moved to slot receiver. “You have to know how to handle adversity. I came up against some adversity and I’m a team guy, so as long as we were winning I was happy. For me individually, there were some things I had to note to really work on this offseason to better myself for the upcoming season.”
Notre Dame has seen first-hand how a momentum-changing fumble can cripple a team and its season. In the 2011 season opener, the Irish marched 79 yards in seven plays on the opening drive before former Irish running back Jonas Gray fumbled at the South Florida 1-yard line. The Bulls scooped it up and returned it 96 yards for a touchdown. The game — and the course of the season — was altered on that one play.
Six weeks later, the Irish looked poised to climb out of a 17-0 deficit and tie USC in the final minute of the third quarter. Set up one yard from the end zone, backup quarterback Dayne Crist mishandled the snap. USC’s Jawanza Starling recovered and ran 80 yards for a touchdown that all but clinched the loss for Notre Dame.
“I don’t mince words with it. I make no bones about it,” Alford said. “We can all agree to disagree, but I don’t think putting the ball on the ground is okay at any time. We’re going to stress it.”
