ROSE/CFP: Irish coach Kelly finds more frustration in another playoff loss

By GRAHAM DUNN

The news was the same as before for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Another chance for a win in the College Football Playoff. Another epic loss.

Apparently, based on his responses in the post-game press conference, Brian Kelly has had enough.

Top-ranked Alabama continued its mastery of the CFP semifinals, winning for the fifth time in six tries with a convincing 31-14 victory over No. 4 Notre Dame at AT&T Stadium on Friday, earning another shot at a national title on Jan. 11 against No. 3 Ohio State.

For the second time in CFP play, Notre Dame was scratching its collective heads, wondering what it will take to, at least, make a game of it against the likes of Alabama, et al.

Kelly had his ideas.

“The margin is not the issue. Losing is losing,” stated ND coach Brian Kelly, who was asked about the frustration of another CFP loss. “I don't know really what the inference is. This football team battled. And they made a few more plays on the perimeter.

“I'm not sure, really, what the question is. When you lose football games, you know, there's a few more plays that you have to make. We had the opportunity. You watched the game. I watched the game. We did not score in the red zone when we had opportunities. We moved the ball into the red zone. We missed a field goal. We had two opportunities in the red zone to score, where this would be a competitive football game. And we didn't make enough plays.”

Notre Dame dropped to 0-4 in New Year’s Day 6/CFP games and there was no moral victory for the Irish, who did something no one else had done this season – hold Alabama to under 35 points.

“This wasn't a matter of getting knocked off the ball or not having enough players to compete against Alabama,” Kelly said. “This was about making plays.”

Yet, it was about stopping three of the top Heisman candidates in the country in quarterback Mac Jones, running back Najee Harris and wideout DoVonta Smith.

Notre Dame struck out on all three.

Harris finished with 125 yards on 15 carries, although he was held without a touchdown.

Jones was near-perfect passing the football on 25-of-30 attempts for 297 yards and four TDs. He also ran for 18 yards and picked up a couple of key first downs.

But Smith was the epicenter of the Tide offense hauling in seven catches for 130 yards and three scores.

“Yeah, they're an extremely talented offense,” stated linebacker Drew White. “I think the whole country knows that. Our game plan going into it was to make them make the big plays and line it up and snap it as many times as they can. In the first quarter, it was really communications and just not executing the defensive structure well. So that was attributed to those scores.”

Kelly was asked repeatedly about the Irish downfall in the post season. His frustration boiled over in his answers.

“I don't know how I need to -- I really don't want to continue to go down this path,” Kelly said. “We're going to keep getting here, okay? And we're going to keep banging at it and you guys watched the game, didn't you? They made plays on the perimeter. They made some dynamic plays.

“They had the college football player of the year who made some dynamic plays. We battled. We were right there. So we're going to keep getting back here.”

Later, Kelly was congratulated for a great season by a national reporter. With that, he took a shot at his local scribes.

“That would be nice if our local people felt that way,” he said. “But they don't use any of those kinds of those terms. This is always about where our program needs to go.”

The frustration continued when he was asked if Smith was his choice to win the Heisman.

“Were you not paying attention to the last answer?” he snapped.

Kelly continued his diatribe in the post-game, defending his team’s talent.

“You guys are killing me,” he said. “Big games, big games. You mean when we play Alabama and Clemson, right? And those are the big games. Those are elite, talented teams that have elite players. I just mentioned four players that are going to be vying for the Heisman.

“When they're on the perimeter, nobody has shut them down. Tell me who has tackled those guys. Everybody has the same problem that I do. It's tackling those guys and getting them down. And it's the same issue.

“I don't have a unique problem at Notre Dame. I think you need to look at the scores that everybody played against Alabama and Clemson. Everybody's got the same issue.”