SOUTH BEND — It was a conversation with Virginia Tech head football coach Frank Beamer that may have given Brian Kelly the most valuable piece to the bowl preparation puzzle.
But some of the lessons apparently just have to be learned the hard way.
"I think I’ve hit all the problems that you can have," the first-year Notre Dame football coach said, heading into his fourth bowl experience and ND’s 30th.
"For example, my first bowl game was in Toronto," Kelly said Monday. "The per diem (meal money) runs out real quick in a city like that.
"Miami — there’s distractions until 3 o’clock in the morning, especially when one of the floors in your hotel is a nude beach.
"So there are distractions that I’ve obviously been able to balance coming into El Paso, Texas, that I think are pretty valuable to me. So I think I have a pretty good plan at this point."
The bowl plan, which started Saturday — before ND (7-5) even knew its opponent or its destination — leads up to a Hyundai Sun Bowl matchup with awakened rival Miami (7-5), Dec. 31 in El Paso.
The most important element of the bowl plan? Getting physical, the lesson Beamer shared with Kelly right before his Hokies rocked Kelly’s University of Cincinnati team, 20-7, in the Orange Bowl two seasons ago.
"My first couple of bowl games I was really hesitant to get into some contact situations," Kelly said, "but you’ve got to get your timing back. You’ve got to go tackle. You’ve to play the game, because there is a long layoff between the games.
"I think we all get caught up in that we want to be injury-free. We want to make sure that we’re fine going into the game and then the game is a little too fast for you early on. So we’re going to get back to tackling. We’re going to get back to some scrimmaging, some live work. In talking to Frank, that’s what they tweaked and had great success in doing so."
But it’s also about striking a balance — between academic demands and football, between coaches teaching in practice and hitting the road for recruiting, between using some sessions to develop younger players for 2011 and bearing down on the Miami game plan.
"It’s not an exact science," said Kelly, whose lone bowl loss was to Beamer.
Just what that inexact science entails this time is that the Irish will lift and condition Tuesday, then practice Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this week. They then enter exam week, during which time players will lift and condition during their free time, but there will be no formal practices.
Finals end Dec. 17, and the Irish will have a robust two-hour practice on Dec. 18. The most pivotal practices in Kelly’s mind, and likely the most physical, will be Dec. 20-21-22, after a day off on the 19th.
After the Dec. 22 session, the players are free to travel home for Christmas, then will reconvene Dec. 26 in El Paso. Kelly called the practices Dec. 27, 28 and 29 in El Paso "bonus practices."
For the record, Kelly said he never actually witnessed the nude beach at his Florida hotel.
"Just heard about it," he said with a chuckle. "Let’s make that clear."
Personnel matters
- As adeptly as Sean Cwynar and Hafis Williams have filled in for starting nose guard Ian Williams the past four games, the incumbent isn’t in any danger of losing his job when he returns to action in the Sun Bowl.
"Ian will get as much work as he’s able to get," Kelly said of the 6-foot-2, 305-pound senior, out since suffering a knee injury Oct. 23 against Navy. "It’s his last game playing for the University of Notre Dame. So he’s going to have to tap his helmet and yell real loud to come off the field, because we’re going to stick with him." - Sophomore receiver Theo Riddick will move back into a more prominent role in the Irish offense for the Miami game, Kelly said.
He went down with an ankle injury Oct. 16 against Western Michigan and didn’t play again until a cameo against USC Nov. 27. Still, Riddick is ND’s second-leading receiver (39 catches, 412 yards). - Senior walk-on Bill Flavin (ankle surgery) may be able to return for the bowl game to handle snaps for extra points and field goals. Flavin suffered his injury Oct. 30 against Tulsa.
"It’s been problematic for us, especially in the USC game," Kelly said of the snaps. "(Getting him back) would be helpful." - When you’re calculating who might be waiting in the wings in the Irish secondary next year, sophomore E.J. Banks appears out of the mix for good, now.
Banks fell off the active roster in August for academic reasons, a detail Kelly could not confirm because of student privacy laws. Kelly, however, gave Banks the option to remain in school and practice with the team as a walk-on this fall.
The Pittsburgh product initially agreed to it, but did not finish the semester at ND. He is reportedly back in Pittsburgh contemplating his next move. - Freshman Andrew Hendrix, ND’s emergency No. 3 QB the past couple of games, will not be an option for the Sun Bowl game. That’s because at this stage, it’s not worth it to Kelly to burn a year of eligibility to play Hendrix in a fraction of one game.
"Having said that, he’s getting a lot of preparation work," Kelly said, "because we’re treating (bowl prep) as, in some instances, the 2011 season." - Kelly said juniors Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph have asked the NFL’s draft advisory board to evaluate their potential draft stock for the April 2011 draft.
"I guess that’s different from last year," Kelly said, "because I don’t know that either of those players (quarterback Jimmy Clausen and wide receiver Golden Tate) had asked to be evaluated. They both were going to go (regardless of what an evaluation said). Both of these young men have asked to be evaluated."
And not every player who is evaluated ends up declaring to be an early entry in the draft. Either way, Kelly said he respects their upcoming decisions ... but:
"We’re heavily recruiting them for Notre Dame," he said.
Squibs
- The Sun Bowl is calling it the fastest sell-out in the bowl’s 77-year history. It took just 21 hours for the game to exhaust its local supply.
"Notre Dame sold out its entire allotment, too," said Trenten Hilburn, Sun Bowl spokesman. "Miami has less then 3,000 of its allotment left, but once those tickets leave our hands, we consider it a sell-out."
Hilburn said the Sun Bowl committee is considering adding standing-room tickets. - The Las Vegas odds-makers have installed Miami as a 2½-point favorite.
