Notre Dame Head Coach preparing for home opener against New Mexico

NOTRE DAME, Ind.—The University of Notre Dame is preparing for the home opener against New Mexico and ABC57’s Saturday Kickoff Host Allison Hayes caught up with Coach Brian Kelly to talk about how the Irish are preparing for the match-up.

The Irish have had 12 days off since beating Louisville on Labor Day and Coach Kelly says the team has used that time to work on correcting mistakes and re-focusing on the details, including quarterback Ian Book.

Book completed 60% of passes for 193 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for a touchdown and 81 yards on the ground, which was fifth among quarterbacks.

"In an opener you have a standard of play, and, you know, he didn't reach the standard that he had set for himself. I think there are some things that he would have liked to have done better. And most of them were technical things, and he went back to work on them this week to be technically more sound. Ian Book is incredibly committed, hardworking, and you can see that come out of him this week and his focus was really on being much more technically sound,” Coach Kelly said.

Kelly said that he doesn’t want the team focusing on making the big play, but instead, on winning every play.

“Sometimes our guys want it so bad that they get caught up with outcomes over the process, you know, a lot of our veterans got caught up in a little bit too much of wanting to make plays instead of being much more focused on their technique. Consequently, it got them into some trouble. They did a great job this past off week getting focus back on their technique, and I'm confident you'll see that this weekend,” Coach Kelly said.

The Irish are set to face off against the New Mexico Lobos on September 14 at 2:30 p.m. at Notre Dame Stadium.