Notre Dame’s Kelly talks transfers and titles
STUART, Fla. – Brian Kelly has experienced a lot in his decade as Notre Dame’s head football coach, including a BCS national championship game appearance in 2013 and a College Football Playoff semifinal last season.
But what he hasn’t had, until this coming season, is the same starting quarterback for two consecutive years.
“That lets us sleep a little better,” said Kelly, who spoke to the Notre Dame Club of Stuart last week. “For some reason, it has not worked out that I’ve had a quarterback start for me in two consecutive seasons. To have Ian Book back, to have the kind of spring that he had, is going to bode well.”
Notre Dame went 12-1 in 2018, losing to eventual national champion Clemson 30-3 in the Cotton Bowl.
While Clemson and Alabama continue to draw most of the attention from the college football world, Kelly likes the way his team looks coming out of spring practice.
“Our offensive line is outstanding,” he said. “We have a real veteran defensive line with some pass rushers. I think any time you’re good on the offensive line and defensive line, you’ve got a quarterback that can play at a high level, that’s the making of a good football team.”
Kelly touched on several subjects, including the NCAA’s transfer portal, whether student-athletes should receive a stipend and Notre Dame’s independent status.
Q: What do you think of the new transfer portal? Miami’s Manny Diaz has done really well with it, while other coaches have said they’re not in favor of it.
A: I think having the ability to transfer, I think we’ve all kind of come to the realization that young men are now free to make those decisions. With those decisions, I think there needs to be more information in that transfer portal. And that information needs to be transparent. What’s your academic situation? I think right now all we have is a name, your height and weight, and that’s it. That’s all we get out of it. If you want to transfer, that’s fine. But there needs to be a bit more. We are still colleges. We are still universities. I think there should be an academic component that’s part of the transfer portal. If you do that and you want to expose what your academic record is as well, I think that’s fine. Now you decide whether those young men fit the profile that you’re looking for academically and athletically.
Q: Is it good for players who want to gauge their interest from other schools and then be able to pull their name back and remain with their current school?
A: I think in life everybody has to be educated about the decisions that they make. If you put your name out for a job as a reporter and everybody knows that you’re trying to get a job somewhere else, your employer is probably not going to be that happy with you. That’s the same thing as putting your name in the transfer portal and then pulling it back. So as long as you’re educated on the processes, the real-life processes that happen every day, I have no problem with that. But I think it’s more about, let’s educate the young men about what does it mean putting your name in the transfer portal. I think everybody just jumped to put their name in there and see what is out there. There’s more ramifications than just throwing your name in the transfer portal, and I think it’s incumbent upon whoever does that, whoever has that inquiry, that they’re educated.
Q: You’ve had some players transfer, including quarterback Brandon Wimbush. Do you —
A: Well, we have a different thing. Our kids get their degree. They get their degree from Notre Dame. Now they want to go play with a degree. What we’re seeing in the transfer portal is simply they haven’t got their degree, they want to find a place to finish their schooling.
It’s a little bit different for us. Our guys aren’t leaving Notre Dame without a degree. They’re going to get their degree. Now they have found that, ‘You know what, with my degree, maybe I’m not getting as much playing time. Let me find a spot that’s going to give me (more playing time). I’m all for that if they get their degree.
Q: Are you in favor of players receiving some sort of stipend?
A: I’m in favor of it. I’m in favor of having a little bit of money in their student account where it can pick up things like parking tickets. The stipend for us is really to cover some incidentals — maybe a trip home during a long Easter break where everything closes down and maybe they can get home. It’s just enough to cover things for them. … I’m not in favor of paying them at all.
Q: Since you don’t have a conference
championship you play in, do you feel you have to go undefeated to get into the semifinals or can you get in with a loss?
A: I think year to year it changes, right? I think in the past three years some teams have had some real bad losses and made it. So if we lose to New Mexico next year, we’re probably not going to get in. If we go 11-1 and lose on a late field goal at Georgia and Georgia runs the table? Yeah. We go into it with the mind-set that we’ve got to win all of our games and that’s how you play for the national championship at Notre Dame.
Q: Do you like being an independent? A: We love the fact we can play a schedule that has USC and Georgia and Michigan and allows us Florida State last year, Miami. We get that kind of blend of having an independent schedule.