Brian Kelly updates Michael Carmody position change

Speaking in a press conference on Monday ahead of their matchup with UNC, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly detailed the progress with Michael Carmody’s recent position change. Carmody recently was moved to the ever-important tight end position for Notre Dame from the offensive line. The goal was to use Carmody as a larger protection option in their bigger offensive packages.

Kelly on Michael Carmody position change

“I think he did some pretty good things — again it’s another [case] of we got some different looks,” detailed Kelly on Carmody’s first time at tight end. “I think you look back on when we got the turnover with Bo [Bauer] and the interception, we had two lost plays there when we got in the 13 [personnel package] — they had been pretty much about 93 percent of the time they were bringing overload pressures and they played zone to us and so that’s why we had Carmody in the game.

“We tried to run the jet sweep and they had three extra guys on the perimeter [and] we were expecting pressures. So we were prepared for Carmody to do some things. He didn’t have a heavy workload, I guess is what I’m trying to say, when we went into those packages. But when we did, he did pretty well and I think it’s something that we’ll continue to work on.”

With limited opportunity to showcase the extent of his abilities at the tight end position against USC, the position change for Carmody will continue to be something to watch for Notre Dame fans.

Kelly on Notre Dame’s offensive tempo

“Tempo seems to be an ally for us within this offensive structure,” Kelly explained as well on Monday. “Look, it’s never really been about the plays as much as how the play is going to be executed at its most consistent level. This has been about consistent execution. Sometimes you have to huddle and it takes time for you to see it and scan it. And this offense and this group and the quarterback [Jack Coan] in particular seems to work better if there’s a pace to it.”

“He’s a guy who makes quick decisions and seems to operate based upon what we had seen leading into the USC game, that the snapshots of his effective and efficient play was tempo driven,” Kelly said of Coan. “So we said ‘all right,’ let’s run this one up the flag pole and see if it works. We’re trying to do the same things, we’re trying to find out how to best utilize and get the best version of our players.

“And so that was what we went to work at on the off week to kind of take those best moments. And it really centered around quick drops, getting the ball out, quicker reads — you saw we were reading the box for the first time this year. Our run game now was predicated on what the box looked like. We hadn’t done that up to this point and it was really effective, so I would tell you that there will be more of that to come.”