What an amazing difference one football season has made for this year’s Notre Dame-Miami game.
On Oct. 29, 2016, at Notre Dame Stadium, the Fighting Irish eked out a 30-27 victory over the Hurricanes after kicker Justin Yoon converted a 23-yard field goal with 30 seconds remaining in the contest. Notre Dame still was only 3-5 — and went on to finish 4-8 — while Miami dropped to 4-4.
How the mighty from the epic 1987-90 series had fallen.
Yet a little more than one year later, the rivalry once again will have national title implications on the line for both teams this Saturday. Notre Dame is 8-1 and No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Miami is 8-0 and boasts the longest winning streak (13) in the Football Bowl Subdivision after whipping No. 13 Virginia Tech 28-10 last week.
When asked what he can attribute to the dramatic turnaround for both teams, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly chuckled.
“Fans could be more patient — I’m sure that’s not the answer you wanted,” Kelly replied before turning serious. “I would just say that college football, 85 scholarships, the ability for teams to invest in player development … It’s really important to so many institutions that everybody’s got a fair shot at being competitive year in and year out.”
Where Notre Dame has made the most pronounced upgrade is in its physicality, especially with the run game. Through Kelly’s first seven seasons from 2010-16, the Irish had averaged 162.4 rushing yards per game, including 163.3 last year to finish No. 80 nationally in that category.
This year Notre Dame’s average is 324.8 — exactly double the 162.4 figure from Kelly’s first seven seasons — to rank No. 5 in the country. Three of the teams ahead of it, Army, Navy and Georgia Tech, run the triple option, while the fourth, Arizona, is at 327.0.
Kelly admitted the pieces always had been in place to thrive with the run, but the commitment this year was fully invested because of the combination of a powerful offensive line, a deep running corps and a new quarterback in Brandon Wimbush, who also is an outstanding runner.
“It was a change of philosophy in terms of what we were going to really hang our hat on in terms of who we were going to be, our identity,” Kelly said. “Our identity was going to run through that offensive line.
“When you talk about it, it’s one thing. But when you actually do it, I think it started to show itself.”
What was crucial was that after the 20-19 loss to Georgia Sept. 9 in which the Irish ran for a paltry 55 yards, the plan was not scrapped by any knee-jerk assessments. When Notre Dame ran for 515 yards the next week in a 49-20 victory at Boston College, the buy-in and formula fermented.
“That was really where everything started to kind of show itself — that this is who we were going to be … It’s certainly taken shape from there,” Kelly said.
The commitment did not necessarily occur this fall but back in January.
“The hirings, the philosophy, the total makeover of our entire mental psyche in terms of being physical was all part of that,” Kelly said. “But I don’t think it really takes hold until in the season when that’s all backed up by actually doing it. You can talk about all that stuff, but if you actually do it and stick to it, I think that’s when it really starts to come together.”
He added that the Georgia performance was not all on the offensive line.
“It was a number of things that we needed to do better collectively at a number of different positions, from tight end to quarterback to running back to coaches, everybody. It was becoming more comfortable with what we were doing schematically, as well,” Kelly said.
“There wasn’t a panic. There wasn’t finger pointing. It was,‘Let’s continue to do what we’re doing, and we’ll break through.’”
The natural follow-up is whether this is a long-range philosophical implementation, or one specific to 2017 predicated on the current team strengths. Next year when Wimbush is more experienced and the line graduates at least two vital pieces in All-Americans Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson, will the Irish still have the same identity?
“I think we’re always going to get outstanding linemen here at Notre Dame,” Kelly replied. “I think the trend in college football … RPOs [run-pass options] have got a chance of going away. I think that there’s less desire to want to see linemen downfield, and that rule is getting some pushback in terms of how it’s being even officiated now.
“… It’s going to come back to putting a premium on offensive line play. We have a great history of getting great offensive linemen here. … We should be really good at running the football here at Notre Dame.”
That’s not to say there won’t be some adjustments to certain strengths, but the main identity under Kelly should remain the current one.
“You have to be able to be physical — especially as we get into the month of November, looking at how we’re going to schedule — I’d like to see Florida State up here in November playing against Notre Dame [Florida State visits South Bend on Nov. 10, 2018]. The teams that want to come up from the south, I think our demeanor and physicality should be part of who we are.
“I think that’s maybe a departure from where I was before, but I’m learning every year and trying to get smarter.”
Miami has elevated dramatically in head coach Mark Richt’s second season, and Notre Dame has, too, with the addition of six new on-field assistant coaches and a new strength and conditioning template.
“What we needed to do is make some changes that allowed us to grow again,” Kelly said. “There's a new staff, new blood, new energy.
“This one was different. I’ve had three other jobs where I came in and the entire look was different. It creates an energy that’s different. This one was much more about the approach on a day-to-day basis changing and the plan changing from what it was before. Just this business plan was different.”
Those changes in just one year speak for themselves at both Notre Dame and Miami.
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