It wasn't just the season-ending
injury to Jamoris Slaughter that put Brian Kelly in an all-business mood
when the celebration was still percolating all around him.It
was the knowledge that his Notre Dame football team’s 20-3 conquest of
then-No. 10 Michigan State Saturday night could be much more than an
upset. It could be a turning point. And the time to start building
toward that possibility started before the team even got on the bus just
after midnight in East Lansing, Mich.
The third-year Irish head football coach’s postgame mantra? Don't get infected with success.“It's easy to forget how you got here,” Kelly said Sunday afternoon. “It's easy to listen to how great you are. We've got to avoid the noise and stay disciplined on the process. If we do that, we'll be pretty good in November.”
If the Irish — 3-0 for the first time since 2002 and carrying their highest ranking (11th) since Dec. 3, 2006 — want to be pretty good this Saturday night against No. 18 Michigan (2-1) and beyond, they’ll have to do it without Slaughter, a fifth-year senior.
Notre Dame’s most-experienced member of its secondary and most-versatile defender is out for the season and perhaps for his college career with a torn Achilles tendon. The 6-foot, 200-pound free safety suffered the injury on the first play of the second half of Saturday’s game.
Slaughter had played drop linebacker as well against spread and option teams the past couple of seasons, nickelback when asked to and was Kelly’s safety net for a thin cornerback corps that already lost junior Lo Wood for the season to injury.
Sophomore Matthias Farley, a converted wide receiver and perhaps the biggest personnel surprise on either side of the ball this season, moves into the starting lineup.
“You lose a Jamoris Slaughter, you're losing an ‘A’ player,” Kelly said. “Matthias is certainly not at the level yet of a Jamoris Slaughter. So we'll have to continue to develop him, but we have a lot of confidence in him.”
Slaughter does have the option to petition the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility for 2013.While he mulls his future, his Notre Dame teammates will be cultivating theirs. Pushing beyond what they’ve already accomplished is a lesson learned the hard way last season by a deflating 31-17 loss to USC when the stage was quite similar to what Saturday’s Michigan game figures to be.
“A lot of the guys went through the USC experience, and we didn't play our best football,” Kelly said. “This is a group that has learned by their mistakes — not just players, but coaches. So moving forward, I think we've learned from the experiences over the last couple years that we've got to stay focused and away from the distractions.”
In that light, here are ND’s areas for growth potential and how that plays against the backdrop of the road ahead:
Quarterback play
Sophomore quarterback Everett Golson put up the ugliest stats of his three-game starting run Saturday against the Spartans, and yet probably took his most significant step forward in his overall evolution.
A 14-for-32 night gouged his historic start in the completion-percentage category. A 1-for-14 success rate on third down did the same to his conversion rate.
Yet the 6-foot, 185-pounder made big plays when he had to. He stayed poised. He took shots down the field in the passing game to try to loosen up the overloaded box Michigan State was using to stop the run.
Golson threw a 36-yard TD pass to John Goodman and scrambled for a six-yard score against a defense that hadn’t given up an offensive touchdown this season. And he may have done it all against the best defense overall and in the passing game the Irish will see this season.
Only Oklahoma has a better pass-efficiency defense rating nationally (third) than MSU’s (seventh) at the moment, and the Sooners’ was accumulated against the likes of UTEP and Florida A&M.
The most significant stat is turnovers. The Irish have a total of two through three games. Last year at this time, they had 13.
The next step in the QB evolution, Kelly insisted Sunday, isn’t adding more pages from the playbook or augmenting some formational bells and whistles, it’s Golson getting better at what’s already on his plate.
Catching on
Three games into life after Michael Floyd, an unlikely trio of TJ Jones, Robby Toma and Theo Riddick are tied for most receptions in 2012, with nine each.
Tight end Tyler Eifert, shut out Saturday night for the first time since he became a starter midway through the 2010 season, is right behind them with eight catches.
None of them are likely to fade, but the depth of the receiving corps needs to continue to develop, because there are some weapons in the younger classes that can open up opportunities for everyone.
Freshman Chris Brown showed off his speed on a first-quarter incompletion Saturday night in which Golson put a little too much air into the throw. Classmate Davonte’ Neal has a knack for getting big yards after the catch.
And sophomore DaVaris Daniels may be the most dangerous of any of the wide receivers on the roster. His participation Saturday night was limited to a handful of plays after he suffered a setback to his recovery from an ankle sprain Friday during a walkthrough.
Daniels is averaging 19.8 yards per catch, best among Irish players who have more than two receptions. Kelly’s expectation is that the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder will be available for the Michigan game.
Reshuffling the secondary
The good news in ND’s war of attrition in the secondary is that the Irish don’t face a team currently ranked higher than 40th nationally in passing efficiency the rest of the season.
The less-than-good news is that those numbers aren’t likely to hold up. USC (41st), with Matt Barkley; Oklahoma (47th), with Landry Jones; and BYU (61st) with Riley Nelson are among those who figure to climb significantly by the time the Irish face them.
At least they’re used to playing without Slaughter. In addition to sitting out all but one play of the second half Saturday, the safety missed the entire second half of the Purdue game on Sept. 8 with a shoulder injury.
Senior Zeke Motta becomes the air traffic controller of the group. He’s the only one among the four secondary starters who didn’t get moved from the offensive side of the ball.
“I think what we're seeing is the development of some really young players that can be really good players for us,” Kelly said. “We don't need to hide them. They just need to continue to develop.”
Polishing a diamond
The defensive front seven is this Notre Dame team’s calling card.
Even ND’s surprisingly sparkling No. 26 standing in pass-efficiency defense is due in large part to the pressure the Irish can get up front without a lot of gambling and blitzing.
Perhaps its most impressive numbers are these: The 30 points given up through three games are the fewest since its last national title run, in 1988. And Saturday night, the Spartans didn’t run a single play in the Irish red zone. In the second half, only one of MSU’s 33 plays was snapped on the ND side of the 50-yard line.
And yet it’s not even close to what it could be. Fifth-year senior end Kapron Lewis-Moore missed almost all of the Purdue game (Sept. 8) and was laboring with a calf injury Saturday night. Freshman Sheldon Day and sophomore Tony Springmann, key backups, are surging each week.
Drop linebacker Danny Spond is healthy and improving. Senior weakside linebacker Dan Fox probably played his most complete game. And middle linebacker Manti Te’o is inspiring everyone around him to keep pushing.
So is Kelly.
“I think you have to,” he said. “Obviously, they're 18- to 21-year-olds. You need to continue to remind them about where they are, how they got here.”
The third-year Irish head football coach’s postgame mantra? Don't get infected with success.“It's easy to forget how you got here,” Kelly said Sunday afternoon. “It's easy to listen to how great you are. We've got to avoid the noise and stay disciplined on the process. If we do that, we'll be pretty good in November.”
If the Irish — 3-0 for the first time since 2002 and carrying their highest ranking (11th) since Dec. 3, 2006 — want to be pretty good this Saturday night against No. 18 Michigan (2-1) and beyond, they’ll have to do it without Slaughter, a fifth-year senior.
Notre Dame’s most-experienced member of its secondary and most-versatile defender is out for the season and perhaps for his college career with a torn Achilles tendon. The 6-foot, 200-pound free safety suffered the injury on the first play of the second half of Saturday’s game.
Slaughter had played drop linebacker as well against spread and option teams the past couple of seasons, nickelback when asked to and was Kelly’s safety net for a thin cornerback corps that already lost junior Lo Wood for the season to injury.
Sophomore Matthias Farley, a converted wide receiver and perhaps the biggest personnel surprise on either side of the ball this season, moves into the starting lineup.
“You lose a Jamoris Slaughter, you're losing an ‘A’ player,” Kelly said. “Matthias is certainly not at the level yet of a Jamoris Slaughter. So we'll have to continue to develop him, but we have a lot of confidence in him.”
Slaughter does have the option to petition the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility for 2013.While he mulls his future, his Notre Dame teammates will be cultivating theirs. Pushing beyond what they’ve already accomplished is a lesson learned the hard way last season by a deflating 31-17 loss to USC when the stage was quite similar to what Saturday’s Michigan game figures to be.
“A lot of the guys went through the USC experience, and we didn't play our best football,” Kelly said. “This is a group that has learned by their mistakes — not just players, but coaches. So moving forward, I think we've learned from the experiences over the last couple years that we've got to stay focused and away from the distractions.”
In that light, here are ND’s areas for growth potential and how that plays against the backdrop of the road ahead:
Quarterback play
Sophomore quarterback Everett Golson put up the ugliest stats of his three-game starting run Saturday against the Spartans, and yet probably took his most significant step forward in his overall evolution.
A 14-for-32 night gouged his historic start in the completion-percentage category. A 1-for-14 success rate on third down did the same to his conversion rate.
Yet the 6-foot, 185-pounder made big plays when he had to. He stayed poised. He took shots down the field in the passing game to try to loosen up the overloaded box Michigan State was using to stop the run.
Golson threw a 36-yard TD pass to John Goodman and scrambled for a six-yard score against a defense that hadn’t given up an offensive touchdown this season. And he may have done it all against the best defense overall and in the passing game the Irish will see this season.
Only Oklahoma has a better pass-efficiency defense rating nationally (third) than MSU’s (seventh) at the moment, and the Sooners’ was accumulated against the likes of UTEP and Florida A&M.
The most significant stat is turnovers. The Irish have a total of two through three games. Last year at this time, they had 13.
The next step in the QB evolution, Kelly insisted Sunday, isn’t adding more pages from the playbook or augmenting some formational bells and whistles, it’s Golson getting better at what’s already on his plate.
Catching on
Three games into life after Michael Floyd, an unlikely trio of TJ Jones, Robby Toma and Theo Riddick are tied for most receptions in 2012, with nine each.
Tight end Tyler Eifert, shut out Saturday night for the first time since he became a starter midway through the 2010 season, is right behind them with eight catches.
None of them are likely to fade, but the depth of the receiving corps needs to continue to develop, because there are some weapons in the younger classes that can open up opportunities for everyone.
Freshman Chris Brown showed off his speed on a first-quarter incompletion Saturday night in which Golson put a little too much air into the throw. Classmate Davonte’ Neal has a knack for getting big yards after the catch.
And sophomore DaVaris Daniels may be the most dangerous of any of the wide receivers on the roster. His participation Saturday night was limited to a handful of plays after he suffered a setback to his recovery from an ankle sprain Friday during a walkthrough.
Daniels is averaging 19.8 yards per catch, best among Irish players who have more than two receptions. Kelly’s expectation is that the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder will be available for the Michigan game.
Reshuffling the secondary
The good news in ND’s war of attrition in the secondary is that the Irish don’t face a team currently ranked higher than 40th nationally in passing efficiency the rest of the season.
The less-than-good news is that those numbers aren’t likely to hold up. USC (41st), with Matt Barkley; Oklahoma (47th), with Landry Jones; and BYU (61st) with Riley Nelson are among those who figure to climb significantly by the time the Irish face them.
At least they’re used to playing without Slaughter. In addition to sitting out all but one play of the second half Saturday, the safety missed the entire second half of the Purdue game on Sept. 8 with a shoulder injury.
Senior Zeke Motta becomes the air traffic controller of the group. He’s the only one among the four secondary starters who didn’t get moved from the offensive side of the ball.
“I think what we're seeing is the development of some really young players that can be really good players for us,” Kelly said. “We don't need to hide them. They just need to continue to develop.”
Polishing a diamond
The defensive front seven is this Notre Dame team’s calling card.
Even ND’s surprisingly sparkling No. 26 standing in pass-efficiency defense is due in large part to the pressure the Irish can get up front without a lot of gambling and blitzing.
Perhaps its most impressive numbers are these: The 30 points given up through three games are the fewest since its last national title run, in 1988. And Saturday night, the Spartans didn’t run a single play in the Irish red zone. In the second half, only one of MSU’s 33 plays was snapped on the ND side of the 50-yard line.
And yet it’s not even close to what it could be. Fifth-year senior end Kapron Lewis-Moore missed almost all of the Purdue game (Sept. 8) and was laboring with a calf injury Saturday night. Freshman Sheldon Day and sophomore Tony Springmann, key backups, are surging each week.
Drop linebacker Danny Spond is healthy and improving. Senior weakside linebacker Dan Fox probably played his most complete game. And middle linebacker Manti Te’o is inspiring everyone around him to keep pushing.
So is Kelly.
“I think you have to,” he said. “Obviously, they're 18- to 21-year-olds. You need to continue to remind them about where they are, how they got here.”
