by Leprechaun Express & Steve Welsh
Brian Kelly spoke to the media on Thursday, Sept. 1, leading up to Notre Dame’s season-opener against Texas. The Fighting Irish and the Longhorns meet in Austin on Sunday night, Sept. 4, at 6:30 p.m. CT (7:30 p.m. ET).
Not only can there be a dramatic change in a team’s personality/demeanor after just one year, it can happen in just one week …. Adding to the degree of difficulty is the home field. … the Longhorns, who finished 5-7 last year, are only 3.5-point underdogs at home after losing by 35 at Notre Dame in 2015 …. other factors … It is the first time the Irish are opening a season at the other team’s campus site since 2006. … [having] generally struggled the past decade in its initial road trip to an on-campus site …. BradPowersSports.com: ‘Notre Dame is 0-8 straight up the last three years in true road games … when … favored by less than a TD or an underdog.’ … The past has zero bearing on any present game. Nevertheless, it can provide some extra juice to any contest. It might in Austin ….
… Brian Kelly says he has been preparing both quarterbacks to play …. ‘Malik will go in for one play and DeShone will go in for 6, and then Malik will go in for 5 plays and then DeShone will go in for 3. So, the net is that they get the same amount of reps but they’re not tempoed reps and there’s no rhythm to them so we’re just preparing them for that kind of eventuality,’ said … Kelly. ‘… it’s just important to be able to adapt. Being here I’ve been able to adapt to a lot of different situations so for me, I play better when it’s just time to play,’ said quarterback Malik Zaire.
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Neither program plans to reveal its starting quarterback until their respective units take the field …. The Fighting Irish also will be debuting a new receiving corps and rebuilt offensive line. … How will three new Irish starters in the secondary, and a new middle linebacker, hold up against the fast-break [Texas] attack? … For the Longhorns, how motivated are they by last year’s 38-3 whooping in South Bend? Or by head coach Charlie Strong’s potential job insecurity?
Notre Dame introduced their customized uniforms for this year’s Shamrock Series game in this July video. The 2016 Shamrock Series game, broadcast by NBC, will pit Notre Dame against Army at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, at 2:30 p.m. CT (3:30 p.m. ET)
You’ve seen the #ShamrockSeries uniform — now take a closer look at the details. pic.twitter.com/9CNsD9M5wm
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) July 22, 2016
Brian Kelly spoke to the media on Tuesday, Aug. 30, to preview Notre Dame’s season-opener against Texas. The Fighting Irish and the Longhorns meet in Austin on Sunday night, Sept. 4, at 6:30 p.m. CT (7:30 p.m. ET).
Brian Kelly, like most people analyzing Notre Dame’s season opener against Texas, realizes that all eyes will be on the Irish quarterback situation. … the rotation of junior DeShone Kizer and senior Malik Zaire — and how the two quarterbacks handle that … will likely have more impact on the final result than any other factor. * * * The rotation of the quarterbacks will go by feeling, Kelly said, not a hard-and-fast set of rules. The biggest determining factor will be how the Longhorns defend the Irish.
‘What we’re mostly focusing on is what Texas wants to do and how we counter with our two quarterbacks and how we think effectively they can run our offense,’ Kelly said. ‘… we’re trying to counter … the game within the game … how Texas is trying to defend what we’re doing offensively. … the biggest issue that I have moving forward is that we’re going to run the quarterbacks as we see how the defense is playing us. … flow is important, rhythm is important, but if we get into a particular field zone [where] I think another quarterback will be more effective based on what Texas is doing, I may have to supersede the hot quarterback for the right person at the right time.’
The individual on Texas’ offense who could trouble Notre Dame the most … may not be one of its quarterbacks or either of its 250-pound running backs. … [but rather] first-year offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert’s up-tempo system. Gilbert, a co-offensive coordinator at Tulsa last season, helped direct a Golden Hurricane offense that averaged 36 points, more than 500 yards of offense and nearly 84 plays per game. … ‘This is going to be North Carolina fast,’ [Brian] Kelly said. ‘This is fast, fast tempo. We’ve worked hard on that to prepare our defense for the kind of tempo they’re going to see.’