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The Making of Tough Gentlemen I t's hard to catch KeiVarae Russell with his mouth closed. The sophomore cornerback is chatty, and if he's not talking he's usually flashing a big, toothy grin. murphy's Law dan murphy He was the student body president in high school and won a citywide citizenship award for his congeniality. Last spring, he jumped from football practice to rehearsal, playing the lead role in a student theater production. On game day, he's almost always one of the last players to leave the field, lingering in the post-game throng of handshakes for a laugh with some new friend in a different color jersey. Brian Kelly loves all of it — that's what makes it worthwhile to coach at Notre Dame, he says — except for maybe that last one. The program's tireless message that it prides itself on both sides of the student-athlete dichotomy attracts a unique brand of college athlete. It also leaves Kelly and his staff with a uniquely Notre Dame problem. "We want our guys to be Notre Dame student-athletes. We want them engaged in everything Notre Dame is, and we don't want them to be marginalized as just football players," Kelly said. "But, when it's time to play, we want tough guys." Tough gentlemen, he calls them. The borderline oxymoron first made its way into the coach's lexicon at the start of the 2012 season. It was born on a long flight to Dublin when Kelly had time to think of a nimble way to denounce Allen Pinkett's claim that the Irish need to recruit more "criminals" without totally disagreeing with the sentiment. Pinkett, a former Notre Dame running back and current color commentator, was just putting new words to a feeling that has existed around the South Bend campus for at least a decade. How can the Irish keep playing with nice guys, but stop finishing last? Especially at a school where anything shy of a BCS bid qualifies as last. It's not an impossible balance to strike, but one that takes time. Kelly singled out former defensive end Kapron LewisMoore for figuring out how to flip the switch from super friendly student to angry quarterback seeker on the field in 2012, his fifth season with the team. The year before him it was senior running back Jonas Gray who set aside a stand-up comedy hobby and became the team's leading rusher. Russell has made long strides, too. He jokes less in practice and sharpened his focus in the past couple months. Kelly's goal is to speed up the process. The tough gentlemen theme returned this week while Notre Dame prepared to play Stanford, the team's annual opportunity to beat its chest and prove it's not soft. The irony that this chance comes against a prestigious university like Stanford has all but faded now. It's calling card has changed from nerds in cleats to the Pac-12's biggest, baddest bully. David Shaw and the Cardinal face the same "problem" as the Irish — a roster full of kids with options outside of football. Yet they've found the formula to play with desperation even if it doesn't really exist. Like Notre Dame, Stanford embraces its academic reputation from its quirky, mock-and-awe marching band to its superstar linebackers, who wore black glasses with tape on the bridge to post-game interviews after beating the No. 2 team in the country earlier this month. Still, there's no mistaking their mean streak. "You can see it when you watch their Head coach Brian Kelly wants players who are gentlemen off the football field and tough on it — a balance that can be difficult to strike at times. photo by bill panzica team," Kelly said when asked about Stanford's tough nature. "They are long and physical and they recruit to that profile, but they develop it as well." Stanford finds the players it needs to embody that personality. None do it quite as well as Trent Murphy, the son of a body builder who wrestled his family's 400-pound cattle to impress friends as a child. He's strong and long, but more importantly he has what Kelly called a "really, really, really bad attitude." The team also creates those personalities, a process that started under previous head coach Jim Harbaugh. The Cardinal ✦ Page 19 under Harbaugh played like a strong, tough team before it was one. The former quarterback scaled Stanford's spread offense back and forced his team to start pushing people around. He took away their options on the field and forced them to play desperate. His team's finished with losing records in his first two seasons, but still ran the ball three times more than they passed it. The following year they went 12-1. For Stanford to play tough, they first had to act tough. ✦ E-mail Dan at dmurphy@blueandgold.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @BGI_DanMurphy.