Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com PRESEASON 2017 63 "If you're in that situation and the coach comes in and says, 'Ah, geez, we had a bad break here, a bad break there, we led in the third quarter in all but two games …' then you worry. "But when the coach comes in and says to you, 'We've got things we have to change and fix' … I'd say 80 percent of the things he identified were on my list. Some things I had that he didn't, and vice versa. You work through those and talk about what the right outcome is." BGI: In Kelly's third year when the team was 12-0, No. 1 and playing for the national title, your thought was the program was ahead of schedule and the quick ascent gave the staff the time to do it right later. However, since 2013, Notre Dame is only 20- 19 versus Power Five teams and 3-10 in true road games. What makes you believe the program is in better shape now than four years ago? JS: "In virtually every regard it is, but mainly culturally. Building and sus- taining a culture in a college athletic program is central to success. Our best cultures have the most sustained suc- cess. "Bobby Clark's success in men's soc- cer, Mike Brey, Muffet McGraw … the culture is so tangible and well defined, and we didn't have that in football. "For a host of reasons, we had sort of lost clarity about it and communication about it. So that's the starting point." BGI: Can you expand on those rea- sons why the culture failed last year? JS: "No. That's the bedrock of it, and then it's the 'programmatic' things that lay on top of it. Strength and condition- ing for obvious reasons, but it builds off the culture. "I get all the statistical data at the end of the summer and in the spring about how fast everyone ran, what their body weight is, how high they jumped … "And that's all important to me, but the much more important aspect of the strength and conditioning program is its relationship to the culture." BGI: Since 2011, you have invested tremendously in sports science, in- cluding Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, among many oth- ers. With that said, how did strength and conditioning flounder last year with all this investment? JS: "I think Brian said it perfectly a couple of times: We're going to play guys who reflect the five core values — excellence, community, education, faith and tradition — he's communicating clearly. We're not going to do this based on talent alone. "The same with sports science. It's all great, but then you start to get focused on the talent of the science. They give us great information … but you can't let your focus on that diminish your fo- cus on using the limited time available as a student-athlete to build the culture. "In some ways, getting back to the basics allows you to do that more. Now, we're not going to abandon any of those things. The science helps us keep our athletes safer and develop them more successfully, but it's not the end-all, be-all; the culture is. "You've got to find the balance. I think what Brian said about who's go- ing to play — it's not just about tal- ent — applies in an analogous way of where we're going to put our energy and focus." BGI: In the same way you, the coaches and players see tangible im- provement now in the strength and conditioning, how did such a culture develop where it became so negative last year? JS: "It doesn't happen overnight. It slips. It's not, 'Oh, something changed.' Most of what I reacted to last year I saw the year before. "But the competitive results sort of made you feel less certain — we fin- ished 10-3, and from my perspective, the third loss there [44-28 to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl] was maybe our best game of the season given who we had to play and what happened. I was so proud of the team in that game. "The regular season was 10-2. You say, 'I see these problems, but we're 10-2 and a lot of good things hap- pened.' "Shame on me, because you lose a little bit of your sense of urgency and get fooled by the record." BGI: What if you had gone 8-4 last year? Would that have still masked the deficiencies? JS: "No, I don't think it would have. Anything less than 10-2, any down- ward movement would have rein- forced for me, and for Brian, that the issues were there. "In terms of my leadership, my big- gest failing was seeing as much of this as I did in previous years and not be- ing forceful enough about it." BGI: So what does Jack Swarbrick define as a successful football season in 2017? Everyone is curious about a 'magic number' of wins. JS: "We look at it as are we meet- ing our obligations to the student-ath- letes? It starts with how we're doing on those expectations: How are we doing representing the university and our fans? "I've made difficult coaching de- cisions with coaches who have had good records here in other sports be- cause we weren't meeting expecta- tions in other ways. "We have two pretty clear expec- tations that are the core of what our football program does: Win games to compete for national championships and graduate. Our student-athletes come here expecting to do that. Are we making progress toward both? "At the cultural level, are we getting the type of young men we want to attract to the university, are we devel- oping them the way we want to? … Those are really important to us." BGI: Do you see this as hitting the reset button with the Brian Kelly ten- ure because you hired six new assis- tants, a new strength and condition- ing core and some new support staff? JS: "I wouldn't call it a reset as much as Brian doing what he does well. Brian's strength always has been as a program builder. He's applying those same skills to his existing program, as opposed to coming in and doing it like he did when he first got here. "Circumstances changed, times changed, so sometimes you have to take a slightly different approach. I loved that he could do it. He was fully engaged in examining everything. "We didn't engage in some one-year experiment here. We didn't attract the talent that we attracted to this staff this year with them thinking, 'I get to have a one-year shot to see how this works at Notre Dame.' "We've reinvested and rebuilt ele- ments of the program with a long- term view, not a short-term view." ✦ "IF YOU'RE IN THAT [4-8] SITUATION AND THE COACH COMES IN AND SAYS, 'AH, GEEZ, WE HAD A BAD BREAK HERE, A BAD BREAK THERE, WE LED IN THE THIRD QUARTER IN ALL BUT TWO GAMES …' THEN YOU WORRY." SWARBRICK