After a year of changes due to a 4-8 2016 record, Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly said this year’s team will be improved.

The Fighting Irish made numerous coaching changes, both during and after the season, and at one point it appeared that even Kelly was on the chopping block.

But as Notre Dame heads into fall camp there is a renewed sense of hope that this team can turn things around in a hurry.

“We began with clearly a vision of where we wanted to go, and that vision was a tradition of excellence,” he said Monday. “One that here at Notre Dame is epitomized with God, country and Notre Dame. We know what the bar is. So, it was clear to have that vision in front of our football team in January.
“Then from there, a mission, and that mission is really clear to our football team, and that is to graduate all of our players and to win a National Championship. Then embark on that journey with the values necessary to get there, and, you know, through the winter and through the spring and into the summer, we’ve had to have a total preparation of our football team, our staff, everybody associated with Notre Dame football to see that get to the point where we are today. That’s why I’m so excited to be moving our football team into the next step of this development.”

Kelly will have a trio of new coordinators this season. Over the course of his career there has always been stability on his staff, so the last 16 months have been a new experience for the veteran coach.

“I don’t know that the Xs and the Os were really the eye-opening moments as much as just really personalities and what drives them, and really getting to know them as human beings,” he said. “Because when you don’t have a past relationship with them, you’re getting to know them as people.

“I don’t know that I’ve walked in and Mike Elko showed me a defense that I haven’t seen before. What he showed me was an incredible attention to detail, a great way to communicate and teach. Chip Long showed me just an incredible veracity to want to be great in everything that he does, and his ability to relay that to the players under his charge.

“So it was really about that more than anything else, than it was an eye-opening experience in terms of a scheme that I hadn’t seen before. So, it was really getting to know them and where I can help them across the board with my experience of 26 years of being a head coach.”

Kelly said that it will be important for the success of the team that everyone does a better job than they did last year, including himself.

“Like I said, I think for me there was a lot of growth as a head coach after 26 years,” he said. “I learned a lot. Got a great amount of feedback that allowed me to put our football team in the position that they need to be, where we are right now. We’re not doing anything that we’re not asking our players to do on a day-to-day basis.”

The Fighting Irish will see how far they have come in the last 16 months on Sept. 2 when they open the season against Temple at Notre Dame Stadium.