Brian Kelly says Notre Dame will ‘play with an edge’ against Alabama: ‘It’s gonna be a good football game’
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Notre Dame may be nearly a three-touchdown underdog against Alabama in the upcoming College Football Playoff semifinal matchup in the Rose Bowl (set to be played in Arlington due to a change of venue this season), but the betting line hasn’t hindered Brian Kelly’s confidence heading into the matchup.
During a Friday morning appearance on ESPN College GameDay, Kelly was asked about Notre Dame’s approach to facing the No. 1 team in the nation in the Rose Bowl.
We’ve got to play fast at times. We’ve got to be able to control the pace, based upon what we feel is going to be successful for us,” Kelly said. “We want to limit possessions, but we have to score as well. This is not going to be 14-7.
“When we feel like we’ve got them on their heels a little bit, we’ve got to play fast, too. So it’s changing the pace on offense and you know what we have to do on defense – we cannot give up explosive plays. And then there’s got to be some grit and some will and desire and want to and all the things that you can’t put stats on and that’s got to show up today. If there’s an edge about our football team, which I believe the will, you can’t put a number on that so we’ll see how that goes.”
The key comment from Kelly is his expectation that Notre Dame will play with an edge against Alabama.
The Fighting Irish coach quickly followed up that statement with a more emphatic one during his appearance on the show.
“This team is gonna play with an edge today, they’re gonna play hard,” Kelly continued. “Look, everybody’s watching this game, there hasn’t been really good football on the last 48 hours, I don’t know if you guys been watching, but it’s gonna be a good football game. And this team will play with an edge, they know everybody’s watching this game and they’ll play with an edge today.”
That’s a nice thing to say but pulling it off is another thing. We’ll see soon enough if those comments have any merit to them with the Rose Bowl kicking off at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
