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The observer | FRIDAY, October 7, 2016 | ndsmcobserver.com
Commentary
Irish relying too much on fun Marek Mazurek Sports Editor
One of my favorite musical artists growing up was “Weird Al” Yankovic.I loved “eBay” and “Amish Paradise,” and a friend, and I lost our seventh-grade lip sync contest by just one point performing “White & Nerdy.” And so, while I was watching Notre Dame’s game against Syracuse, the title of Weird Al’s most recent album came to mind: Mandatory Fun. The week leading up to the Syracuse game, Irish head coach Brian Kelly reiterated and repeated that he wanted his team, especially his defense, to have fun out on the field. Kelly’s replacement at defensive coordinator, Greg Hudson, fit the message, as Kelly also repeated that Hudson was brought on to provide energy, not schematic ideas, for the lackluster Irish defense. Kelly’s message of fun seemed to have its intended effect on Saturday. The Irish defense had a little extra pep in its step, and it certainly celebrated after every positive play like it was the 4-0 team it expected to be by that game at the start of the season. And Hudson was right with the team, doing chest bumps like he was still playing. This week, it seems Kelly is doubling down on the fun aspect of the game. In his Tuesday press conference, he joked at length with the media — yes the media — and characterized Hudson as the guy who’s “jumping out of the cake at birthday parties.” Now, I’ll be the first to admit, the “Mandatory Fun” strategy paid off versus the Orange. The Irish looked loose, and it showed in the final statline. But ultimately, Kelly is walking a fine line, and his focus on fun may backfire. Consider this: Last week, Kelly started his fun campaign, but two weeks ago, before the loss to Duke, his message to the team was to play with a sense of urgency. Telling your team to play with a
heightened sense of urgency and then turning around the next week and telling it to just have fun seems like a 180-degree turnaround. Now, at least Kelly changed up his message after the urgency spiel didn’t work, as the Irish were outmatched in every aspect of the game to a vastly less-talented Duke squad. However, the stark contrast in what Kelly is asking of his team now versus two weeks ago seems odd. Almost as odd as throwing your future-NFL quarterback under the bus, saying he needs to do more, and then being surprised when he makes mistakes by forcing things and trying to do too much — but that’s another story. Maybe this younger Irish team responds better to the fun message than they did the urgency one. Maybe the missing ingredient on the defense was just playing fast and loose. Maybe, but I don’t think so. The thing is, it’s easy to have fun when your offense gives you an early lead with two long touchdown passes and you block an extra point and return it for another two-point score. But what if that doesn’t happen? What if the Irish fumble on their first possession in the rainstorm against North Carolina State? What if, like against Clemson last year, the receivers drop multiple passes? What if the Irish find themselves down 21-0 to Stanford at the end of the first quarter after Christian McCaffrey runs wild? You can preach fun all week, but when you get punched in the mouth, it’s going to go right out the window. And Greg Hudson jumping out of every birthday cake on the planet won’t change that. The problem with fun is it can’t be mandatory. Weird Al knows that, which is why he made it the title of his parody album. The question is, does Brian Kelly? Contact Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Freshmen thrown into action in secondary By BEN PADANILAM Associate Sports Editor
At the beginning of the season, Notre Dame started a sophomore, junior, senior and sixth-year graduate student at the back end of its defense. But over the last few weeks, Irish head coach Brian Kelly has made it a point to begin an influx of youth into the secondary unit, both out of necessity and a desire to rotate players in to earn them experience, as he has stated on several occasions over the last week. Graduate student safety Avery Sebastian suffered a concussion week one against Texas and has struggled during his limited time on the field since. Then, sophomore cornerback Shaun Crawford was lost to a torn Achilles during Notre Dame’s second game of the season against Nevada. So just three weeks later against Syracuse — and after a 1-3 start — the Irish found themselves playing as many as four freshmen in the secondary. Kelly has said this strategy of constantly cycling players in and out will be a short-term schematic move for the defense, but it is one he and the players find productive and conducive to the development of that side of the ball. “I think this method of playing a lot of young guys in a lot of rotation is beneficial,” freshman cornerback Julian Love said. “Syracuse was a high-tempo offense, so if you leave a guy out there ‘x’ amount of plays, he’s going to be fatigued, and so we tried to get a lot of guys in. I’ll have a lot of experience being brought through that, [which] I think is beneficial.” Now, as the Irish prepare to travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, to take on North Carolina State, two of those freshmen — Love and safety Devin Studstill — will be starting in the secondary against the Wolfpack (3-1), and the other two — cornerbacks Donte Vaughn and Troy Pride Jr. — will also see their fair share of time on the field. For Love, seeing the field was something he expected coming into the season, but the amount of playing time has been
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Irish freshman cornerback Donte Vaughn makes a tackle during the 50-33 Notre Dame win against Syracuse last Saturday.
a surprise for him. “I knew I would be able to get some time ... but this much, I didn’t expect,” Love said. “But I knew I just had to work hard each day and just try to get better, and it’s paying forward now.” Although the strategy Kelly has employed as of late was not one the freshmen were expecting when they started the season, it was not one they were unprepared for, according to Love. He said the secondary — particularly the freshmen — have been close since they arrived on campus, and they have felt their role on the team has been to learn on the job and step up when they have been called upon. “As a class, we’re really close. We have been since we got here in June,” Love said. “And so, from a defensive back perspective, we really told each other ‘We’re gonna be put in this spot.’ We were told that, since day one, we need to be ready, and that time is now. [Donte Vaughn] and Troy [Pride Jr.] and [Devin] Studstill — I feel like we’re just doing a great job of learning from the older guys and just trying to be there and be reliable players for the rest of the team.” That’s not to say things have been smooth sailing for the foursome this year. Like the rest of the defense, they had to deal
with the aftermath of the firing of Brian VanGorder as defensive coordinator, with Greg Hudson assuming his position and Kelly taking a larger role in the planning of the defensive scheme. But the changes have been small and simple, and Hudson has helped bring about a new attitude for the secondary, one which it has taken to well, Love said. “Coach Hudson’s been here, and we’re still running sort of the same schemes,” he said. “We’re just changing very few things, so it wasn’t that much of a change from a schematic standpoint. We’re just trying to play with more energy and just trying to have fun.” And now, after Notre Dame’s win over Syracuse last weekend, it’s a mentality the group expects to bring success going forward, starting with Saturday’s game against N.C. State. “Well, we’ve got to rally to the ball and just play with tremendous team effort. That’s really important,” Love said of the defense’s points of emphasis for its matchup with the Wolfpack offense. “And just play with high energy. That can make a difference, and I think it will make the difference in a lot of situations.” Contact Ben Padanilam at bpadanil@nd.edu
Alex Carson
Zach Klonsinski
Marek Mazurek
Assistant Managing Editor
Assistant Managing Editor
Sports Editor
Contrary to what many might think, Notre Dame played its best game of the season — on both sides of the ball — a week ago against Syracuse. Facing a difficult task, a young Irish defense did more than enough for the win. Though schemes may continue to evolve given the opposition, that result provides a blueprint moving forward as Notre Dame heads to Raleigh, North Carolina, this weekend. Whether or not the weather plays a part remains to be seen, but there’s no use predicting its impact — no team is built with inclement weather in mind. I expect continued improvement from the Irish defense this week, and that’ll be enough to get things done against a prototypical N.C. State team — solid, but not great. FINAL SCORE: Notre Dame 38, N.C. State 21
Will weather be a factor this weekend? Absolutely. Has DeShone Kizer proven he can play through it? Yes. In Notre Dame’s run-in with a hurricane last year, Kizer threw for 321 yards and two touchdowns in the team’s loss to Clemson in Death Valley. It should have been more too, because the Irish receiving corps accounted for well over 100 yards in dropped passes. There is plenty of reason for concern about Notre Dame’s questionable production running the ball and the ever-present questions about the defense this year, but the bottomline is if Kizer can play well, Notre Dame is going to put up points. It’s been a simple formula so far. N.C. State’s balanced offense will score too, but if the Irish defense can recapture the energy it played with in the second half against Syracuse, the game is winnable. FINAL SCORE: Notre Dame 38, N.C. State 34
Well, I’m not sure what we learned from last Saturday’s game. Equanimeous St. Brown can catch and Kizer can throw but we knew that already. The young Irish defense got even younger as Kelly reached even deeper into his depth chart in the secondary. If Kizer and Co. put up 50 points again N.C. State will be no problem. But Hurricane Matthew has other plans. The Irish, last year in Death Valley, proved they couldn’t handle the rain and that was with upperclassmen at the skill positions. With young receivers and running backs abound look for fumbles. In the end, the Wolfpack’s power running game is too strong to overcome. The Irish will lose yet another close game this season. FINAL SCORE: N.C. State 35, Notre Dame 28
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By ALEX CARSON Assistant Managing Editor
Amidst a sea of instability and struggles for the Irish defense this year, one man has stood out. Starters have come and gone in the secondar y, new faces have been integrated into the scheme and, perhaps most notably, a defensive coordinator, Brian VanGorder, has been fired. Yet where others haven’t lived up to preseason expectations, Nyles Morgan has. The junior middle linebacker leads the Irish in tack les with 45, and ranks in the top 20 nationally with 29 solo tack les. He’s not just the only Notre Dame player with a sack this season; he’s got two. W hen pundits rate the Irish defense’s performances, he’s the one most often mentioned in a positive light. But as Morgan sees it, there’s plenty of room for him to evolve into a better player. “I’ll say I’m doing the best I can. I still have a lot of grow th to do for myself,” Morgan said. “There is no ‘not getting better.’ I’m 20 years old. I plan on playing a lot of football ahead of me one day, so there’s a lot of grow th going on.” Morgan’s stor y — especially for a recruit as highly touted as the Crete, Illinois, native was — has turned out a little different than originally expected. A four- or fivestar recruit, depending on
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who you ask, and a 247Sports consensus top-three middle linebacker, Morgan didn’t become a regular starter for the Irish until this season, his junior year. He rarely saw defensive snaps as a sophomore, and only saw them as a freshman due to injur y. That came, in part, because he was stuck behind Joe Schmidt at the position. But it doesn’t mean Morgan didn’t get something out of his first two years in South Bend. “I just learned how to stay positive and really learned how to keep my composure,” Morgan said of his time behind Schmidt and Jarrett Grace. “Really make sure that I keep learning, keep growing myself.” There were those times in 2014, though, when Morgan slid into the starting role after Schmidt’s season-ending injur y against Nav y. He made four starts to close his freshman season — Arizona State, Northwestern, Louisville and LSU — but it was far from smooth sailing for Morgan. He was ejected for targeting against the Cardinals, which suspended him for the first half of the regular season finale at USC. The Irish went 1-4 and gave up an average of 41.2 points per game after he took the reins of the defense. “It was something that you’ll never forget,” Morgan said of the experience. “You’re a freshman, tr ying to learn the defense. You remember all the bad times, remember what you did wrong
and from there, you just kind of build on it and get better.” One of the things that kept Morgan behind Schmidt a year ago was the latter’s ability to lead on the field. “We really like Nyles, but I think it goes to probably more about wanting Joe’s communication out there,” Kelly said in September of 2015. That meant Morgan was largely relegated to a special teams role. He made an impact — a key forced fumble against Nav y sw ung momentum to open the second half — but it wasn’t a huge one. Yet, it wasn’t something Morgan was concerned with, he said. “No matter what I’m doing, no matter what I’m playing or if I’m starting Mike or [special teams], it’s just like, when I touch the field, I just go off into my own zone,” Morgan said. “There is no thinking going on — obviously, there’s football thinking — but I’m not worr ying about this or that. There are no worries for me; I’m out there playing football.” This season, though, it’s different. Morgan was handed the keys to the defense before spring practice started and got praise early on from Kelly in his new leadership role — after the Blue-Gold Game, the Irish head coach called his communication “great.” For Morgan, his leadership comes from two places: the position he plays and his desire to win games.
Ben Padanilam
Renee Griffin
Associate Sports Editor
Sports Writer
Last Saturday was a tale of two halves for the Irish defense. In the first half, it allowed 27 points and 319 yards, but held Syracuse to just six points and 170 yards in the second half. Which defense will come to play against N.C. State? Notre Dame’s offense showed both its ability to be explosive and methodical Saturday, and I expect more of the same this Saturday. And N.C. State has been good, but not overly impressive during its 3-1 start given it’s played just one game against a Power-5 team. Weather will be a factor, but it will ultimately have a neutral effect. And the Irish defense will show up just enough to secure a win for Notre Dame. FINAL SCORE: Notre Dame 31, N.C. State 24
Taking its production in the first four games at face value, N.C. State’s offense, and run game in particular, should be perfectly able to exploit the holes that had been gaping in the Irish defense until the second half at MetLife Stadium last week. However, Notre Dame at its worst this season is probably still better than any opponent the Wolfpack has faced so far. Yes, weather will be a factor, but most likely, it will simply make the game’s score lower overall rather than preventing Notre Dame specifically from scoring. This game might get sloppy, but if the defense is able to build on anything from last week, Notre Dame will at last be able to reach .500. FINAL SCORE: Notre Dame 35, N.C. State 27
“I definitely [lead] just by default because I play middle linebacker, I’m the one communicating with the D-line, safeties, left-right, up-down,” Morgan said. “Even if you don’t want to, it just naturally happens where you’re telling guys what to do, where to go, especially as somebody who wants to win.” Morgan said he started to fully grasp Notre Dame’s offense midway through his sophomore year, putting himself in a position where Kelly and VanGorder could name him the starter at middle linebacker from the opening day of spring practice. “Like you have all the pieces there, and then it’s like someone just took it and just threw it in like a blender and scrambled it up for you,” Morgan said at media day in August. “You have to figure out what goes where, where’s this, where’s that? And now it’s like the blender has settled. You understand what’s going on now, you can see how it is. Stuff isn’t moving as fast, and now it’s just like I can put the whole piece together.” Before the season, Morgan compared the Irish coaching staff’s entrusting him with the position to “someone [giving] you the keys to a mansion.” This week, he talked about that moment in the offseason as a relief. “It was just like a big weight off your shoulders, something that you worked
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so hard for for the last two years. ... Ever ything’s finally coming to fruition,” Morgan said. The biggest challenge this week for the Irish defense, which is coming off arguably its best half of the year against Syracuse last Saturday, might be North Carolina State senior running back Matthew Dayes. However, Irish senior captain James Onw ualu said he has faith in his teammate to get the job done. “Their back’s a powerful back. He’ll get downhill once he’s in the space, he’s a pretty speedy guy as well,” Onw ualu said. “Should be a good matchup for our linebackers. Excited to see what Nyles does against him. “I’ll put my money on Nyles.” With VanGorder’s firing, the past couple weeks have sent changes rippling through the Irish locker room — ones that have strengthened the defensive unit, Morgan said. “It’s been really good. A lot of positive vibes going around, a lot of guys fighting for one another,” Morgan said. “It’s really become a real brotherhood, a real bond.” And what’s Morgan’s view of a successful close to the Irish season? “Beating ever y team we come across,” he said. “It’s simple.” Contact Alex Carson at acarson1@nd.edu
Follow Observer Sports on Twitter for live updates and analysis during the game this weekend and all season long. @ObserverSports
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The observer | FRIDAY, October 7, 2016 | ndsmcobserver.com
Wolfpack bring balanced, untested offense Sports Writer
Headed by a reliable quarterback and running back duo, North Carolina State has established the ability to rack up points on offense so far this season, albeit against opponents that were less than formidable. The Wolfpack (3-1, 1-0 ACC) have yet to score fewer than 30 points in a 2016 contest, handily defeating William and Mary, Old Dominion and Wake Forest. They did, however, fall to American Athletic Conference foe East Carolina, 33-30, two weeks ago. N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren expressed confidence in his squad as a result of last weekend’s 33-16 win against Wake Forest. “[The Demon Deacons were a] very good football team, coming in 4-0 with some momentum,” Doeren said. “We
rival Wake Forest last week. He could be called on even more often this weekend if Hurricane Matthew brings conditions that make passing the football more dangerous. Kelly praised Dayes’ “quick feet” and ability to hit holes and accelerate. Doeren said tape from the first few Notre Dame games is unhelpful in formulating an offensive plan for the Wolfpack because of the changes the Irish have undergone defensively in the past two weeks. “I can’t really go off of the other games because they’re simplifying things, and it’s a different play caller, other than watching their personnel,” Doeren said. “But I think we’re going to see a defense that plays hard. They’re going to be sound. They’re going to keep the ball in front of them, and we’ve got to break tackles and make people miss and do the things that we do.”
offseason, has thrown for 1,014 yards through the air — not quite the gaudy numbers of Irish junior quarterback DeShone Kizer — but has completed nearly 73 percent of his passes and thrown zero interceptions to go with nine touchdowns. Irish head coach Brian Kelly said he’s been impressed with the performance of Finley and the overall offense of N.C. State. “Good system of offense,” Kelly said. “I like what they do. [Finley is] smart, doesn’t go outside of what his capabilities are as well. He knows what he can do, and he does it well. He’s a veteran player; doesn’t try to do too much, but does enough to be effective — very effective in what they’re asking him to do.” Dayes, meanwhile, is averaging 109 rushing yards per game this season, with a 24-carry, 125-yard showing against ACC
were very pleased with play, I thought, on the line of scrimmages, rushing for 200 yards and holding them to around 60some yards, and played really well red zone offense and defense, played really well thirddown offense and defense.” Wake Forest was the first Power-5 team the Wolfpack had encountered, but Notre Dame kicks off a series of more daunting opponents on N.C. State’s slate: trips to No. 3 Clemson and No. 7 Louisville immediately follow the visit by the Irish (23), plus matchups against No. 23 Florida State, No. 10 Miami and No. 17 North Carolina later on. Leading the charge against these teams will be Wolfpack redshirt sophomore quarterback Ryan Finley and senior running back Matthew Dayes. Finley, who was at Boise State for two years before transferring to N.C. State this past
By RENEE GRIFFIN
N.C. STate WR
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(So.) Nyheim Hines
LT LG C RG RT TE
(R-So.) Tyler Jones 53 (R-Fr.) Emanuel McGirt 74
(R-So.) Garrett Bradbury 65
Dayes
21
(R-Jr.) Dakwa Nichols 27
(R-So) Ryan Finley 15 (R-So.) Jalan McClendon
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(R-Gr.) Bryce Kennedy 56
RB QB
(R-Gr.) Joe Scelfo 66 (R-Sr.) John Tu’uta 59
(Jr.) Tony Adams 50 (R-So.) Terronne Prescod 70
(R-So.) Will Richardson
54
(R-Jr.) Peter Daniel 64
(Jr.) Cole Cook 48 (R-Sr.) Clark Eyers 41
(Jr.) Bra’Lon Cherry 13 (R-Jr.) Gavin Locklear 30
WR WR
(Fr.) Kelvin Harmon 3 (R-So.) Maurice Trowell
(Gr.) Jack Tocho
29
(Fr.) Nick McCloud 21
(R-Jr.) Josh Jones 11 (R-So.) Dexter Wright 14
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35
(So.) Darian Roseboro 45
(So.) Riley Nicholson 32
(R-Jr.) Jerod Fernandez 4
(R-Jr.) Ford Howell 44
LB LB
(So.) Justin Jones 27 (Fr.) Eurndraus Bryant 91
(Jr.) B.J. Hill 98 (Sr.) Monty Nelson 94
(Jr.) Bradley Chubb
9
(R-Fr.) James Smith-Williams 39
(Jr.) Shawn Boone
(R-Fr.) Jarious Morehead 31
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(Sr.) Dravious Wright 8 (R-Gr.) Niles Clark 6
(So.) Freddie Phillips, Jr. 10
(So.) Kyle Bambard 92 (R-Gr.) Connor Haskins 33
(So.) A.J. Colle III 90 (Sr.) Bra’Lon Cherry 13
PK P PR
DE DT NT DE
N
(Jr.) Mike Stevens 2
(So.) Nyheim Hines 7
LS KR
Julian Love (Fr.)
27
35 Donte Vaughn (Fr.)
WILL DE DT DT DE CB
RT RG C LG LT TE
H KR LS
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Te’von Coney (So.)
22 Asmar Bilal (So.)
S
Andrew Trumbetti (Jr.)
98
14
Devin Studstill (Fr.)
28 Nicco Fertitta (So.)
9 Daelin Hayes (Fr.)
Daniel Cage (Jr.)
75
94 Jarron Jones (Gr.)
Jerry Tillery (So.)
99
MLB
5
Nyles Morgan (Jr.) Greer Martini (Jr.)
58 Elijah Taylor (So.)
Isaac Rochell (Sr.)
90
S
55 Jonathan Bonner (Jr.)
SAM
WR
CB
(So.) Tyler Griffiths 57
CB
WR WR
CB
(Jr.) Kentavius Street
(Jr.) Arius Moore 58
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Contact Renee Griffin at rgriffi6@nd.edu
Notre Dame (R-So.) Stephen Louis 12
(Sr.) Matt
On the other side of the ball, Doeren noted the solid performances by the Wolfpack pass rush and secondary against Wake Forest, and he emphasized that both of those defensive elements would be crucial to stopping Kizer and the Notre Dame passing game Saturday. “It’s a great opportunity to play against, like I said, a bunch of really, really talented guys that are playing at a high level,” Doeren said. “ … We’ve got to make sure to get them in different looks and use pressure when we need to. “All those things are going to be important, tying them all together, and at the end of the day when the ball goes up, we’re going to have to make some oneon-one plays on the football with some really good offensive players.”
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17
James Onwualu (Sr.)
23
Drue Tranquill (Jr.)
8 Avery Sebastian (6th)
44 Jamir Jones (Fr.)
Cole Luke (Sr.)
18 Troy Pride Jr. (Fr.)
Equanimeous St. Brown (So.)
6
81 Miles Boykin (So.)
C.J. Sanders (So.)
3
15 Corey Holmes (Jr.)
Alex Bars (Jr.)
71
78 Tommy Kraemer (Fr.)
Colin McGovern (Sr.)
62
66 Tristen Hoge (So.)
53
Sam Mustipher (Jr.)
75 Mark Harrell (Gr.)
RB QB
33
Josh Adams (So.)
2 Dexter Williams (So.)
14
DeShone Kizer (Jr.)
9 Malik Zaire (Sr.)
Quenton Nelson (Jr.)
56
57 Trevor Ruhland (So.)
Mike McGlinchey (Sr.)
68
70 Hunter Bivin (Sr.)
80
Durham Smythe (Sr.)
82 Nic Weishar (Jr.)
16
Torii Hunter Jr. (Sr.)
29 Kevin Stepherson (Fr.)
4
Montgomery VanGorder (Jr.)
14 DeShone Kizer (Jr.)
3
C.J. Sanders (So.)
10 Chris Finke (So.)
61
Scott Daly (Gr.)
54 John Shannon (Fr.)
PK P PR
19
Justin Yoon (So.)
85 Tyler Newsome (Jr.)
85
Tyler Newsome (Jr.)
42 Jeff Riney (So.)
3
C.J. Sanders (So.)
10 Chris Finke (So.)