Not only was HC Brian Kelly hired to turn around a program rich in tradition to beat U.S.C., he was also hired to bring back into respectability the Fighting Irish's bowl game successes which currently stand at an all-time record of 14-15. Before Notre Dame's 49-21 win over the soft defense of the Hawaii Warriors in last year's Hawaii Bowl, the Golden Domers were an 0-4 SU & ATS in their previous 4 post-season appearances that included being outscored by a combined 141-61 margin. One thing that's remains constant with a Brian Kelly team has been his uncanny ability to produce top-notch QB's. This was recently witnessed by turning a Cincinnati University into a 3 consecutive year 10 or more win club which is something that has happened only once (1951) in their 120-year history. This bowl season is going to see Kelly insert redshirt freshman #13 Tommy Rees into the lineup for the not-ready-for-primetime sophomore risk-taker Dayne Crist. How does Kelly get him focused on the game at hand? Kelly said, "when I was in Miami- there's distractions until 3 o'clock in the morning, especially when one of the floors in your hotel is a nude beach." He continued to point out he obviously conqueres over those distractions when being placed in El Paso, Texas and feels he has a pretty valuable plan to approaching Miami, Fla. in UTEP land. Two seasons ago, Kelly lost to Virginia Tech in those Miami confines of the Orange Bowl by a 20-7 count. What will he carry in here from that loss? After consulting with HC Frank Beamer, Kelly feels his team needs to get into game-situating tackling to keep their timing down. In prior bowl appearances, he was hesitant to do this being more caught up in being injury-free. Now, he's going to get into some real scrimmaging and live work. Kelly elaborated, "It's all about striking 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." The Irish players' schedule looks like lifting and conditioning with a few scheduled practices before finals. They'll only lift and condition until finals' week ends December 17th. Then, a pivotal 2-hour practice on the 18th followed by a day off. Kelly plans the more physical practices for the December 20th-22nd time period before the kids go home for Christmas before returning Dec. 26th. Kelly then plans on having "bonus practices" on December 27th thru 29th to get his team juiced-up for a predicted sell-out crowd of 51,500 at the Sun Bowl. In fact, they're also calling for the fastest sell-out in their 77-year history. Sun Bowl spokesman Trenten Hilburn said, "21 hours and the local supply was already gone." Hilburn reported that Notre Dame sold their entire allotment with Miami having less than 3,000 to sell up to this point. In addition, Hilburn is trying very hard to try to put in standing room tickets to meet the heavy demand. In conclusion, Notre Dame gets a big boost with senior nose guard Ian Williams back and hopes that senior snapper Bill Flavin is ready to go for field goals and extra points after having problems in that area versus USC. Knowing that Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph asked the NFL's draft advisory board to evaluate their potential draft stock for April 2011, I expect Kelly will be utilizing them heavily along with sophomore receiver Theo Riddick. Kelly has only lost one bowl game in his career and is still burned about it. Look for the Irish to be primed and ready for the Hurricanes @ 2PM on New Year's Eve. BY MIKE HANDZELEK
 

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