Kelly: 'I still believe in this team'

A previously unthinkable 0-2 start does not have Brian Kelly ready to give up on Notre Dame two weeks into the second year of his tenure as the Fighting Irish's head coach.

Not when his team has put up 1,022 yards of total offense, production outdone only by the head-scratching mistakes that have led to 10 turnovers and 17 penalties over 120 minutes of game action.

[+] Enlarge Matt Cashore/US PresswireBrian Kelly says it's the little things that are keeping his team from reaching its potential."I think when we came out of preseason camp we felt like we had the chance to be a good team," Kelly said during a teleconference Sunday. "And so when you put that modifier in front, 'chance,' to be a good team, I can see those things in practice, I can see those things in the development of our players. But that chance to be a good team is everything you just mentioned — those turnovers, the little detail things. And until we can clean up those detail things, we can't be a good team.

"I still believe in this team, I still believe we'll be a good football team. But the chance to be a good team is all the things that we're doing right now. We're not giving ourselves a chance to be a good football team."

The challenges of getting a team over the hump may draw greater pressure at a school such as Notre Dame, the third-winningest program in FBS history and a team that had its sights set on a BCS bowl two short weeks ago.

Kelly downplayed that notion, saying he has come across challenges at each one of his three previous head-coaching stops.

"Not one school is the same," he said. "I had challenges at all the schools that I've been at in terms of getting a team over those inherent challenges, and there are inherent challenges here. But we'll get through those as well. And the product that we're putting out on the field, I understand we've gotta win and our players wanna win.

"We're not, we got a chance to be a good team. We can't be a good team until we take care of the little things that are popping up. It's pretty clear that until we get those things taken care of on Saturdays, we'll be a mediocre football team."

When asked if he felt the Irish were close or far from being a good team, Kelly pointed to the demanding early-season schedule, saying his team's mistakes were magnified because of the spotlight it was playing under.

Other schools, he said, have gotten by unscathed by the public.

"We've made so many mistakes against two pretty tough teams coming out," Kelly said. "Again, as you see the schedule, Ohio State's playing Toledo. I mean, teams are playing easy games early on in the schedule. We don't get that luxury. We gotta go play in front of 115,000, and those mistakes get, obviously, they're more glaring against opponents that are physically pretty good as well.

"I believe that we're gonna be a good football team. We won't be until we clean up the little things that keep popping up on Saturdays."

-- On personnel matters, Kelly said tight end Mike Ragone (knee) and linebacker Danny Spond (hamstring) would undergo MRIs. He also said the staff decided to move Theo Riddick from punt returns because it thought both those duties and his wide receiver duties were too much for him.

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Brian Kelly still confident in Dayne Crist

Notre Dame will scrimmage on Saturday and head full bore into preparation for Miami, its opponent in the Dec. 31 Hyundai Sun Bowl, on Monday. But the question that holds the most intrigue for the Irish -- and the one I hear most from fans -- is who will be quarterbacking this team in 2011.

Dayne Crist was the unquestioned starter this year. But after he blew out his knee, true freshman Tommy Rees went 3-0 as the starter. Then there are freshmen Andrew Hendrix and Luke Massa, who have redshirted this year but could be ready to compete in the spring. Head coach Brian Kelly was asked on Friday if the quarterback situation for 2011 was murky, but he chose to look at it a different way.

"I think we have a lot of players we believe we can develop into being frontline quarterbacks," he said. "We clearly have a number of quarterbacks who will be competitive, and that's exciting for me."

Of course, Crist first needs to get healthy before he can re-enter the equation. Kelly said Crist dealt with an infection in his repaired knee that set back his rehabilitation process about a week to 10 days but that otherwise he should be fine by the time the season starts. Kelly stopped short of naming Crist the starter next year but indicated that he may be tough to beat out.

"If he comes back physically able to compete at the highest level, he's got obviously a great deal of experience," Kelly said. "There was a lot of time we spent together, a lot of information he's been able to digest in his first year as a starter. As long as he's physically able to come back -- and I believe he will; he's a tough kid, now -- he's got a great amount of experience that will serve him well."

Kelly said he thought Crist had some mental hurdles to get over last year while rehabbing another knee injury. Crist had to deal with wearing a knee brace and having confidence on it. This time around, Kelly said "there's a different look in his eye. He's like, 'Coach, I will get through this and be stronger because of it.'"

In the meantime, Rees still is the starter and will likely be under fire from Miami's athletic, aggressive defense. Kelly said it will be crucial for Rees to get rid of the ball quickly out of the shotgun, something he has done extremely well in his three starts.

Time will tell if this is the beginning of the Rees era or merely an interruption of Crist's starting career.

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