Pinch Him, He’s Irish

For freshly introduced assistant coach Tony Alford, it certainly appears that he regards his position on the Fighting Irish coaching staff as a payoff for 14 years of hard work throughout his early career. Now at his sixth stop as a running backs coach, and at a program where the national spotlight is among the brightest, Alford feels that South Bend is his place to shine.

“This is basically the epitome of college football,” he said during his first press conference with the media on Friday. “Anybody who follows it, follows it closely, knows the history behind Notre Dame, not just academically, but also athletically. It’s obviously a great opportunity, and I’m excited to be here.

“This place is as first-class as any place I’ve ever been.”

But with this great opportunity comes a tremendous challenge as Alford will take over a stable of running backs that have contributed to rushing offenses that have ranked in the bottom quarter of the NCAA the past two seasons, ranking 115 (75.3 yds/game) in 2007 and 100 (109.7 yds/game) in 2008. The potential has been there; the execution has not.

Alford recognizes the potential in the Irish backfield and noted on Friday that he’s looking forward to getting to work with that group when spring camp begins March 20.

“The tape that I’ve watched, I think there are some really good players here, an abundance of talent,” he acknowledged. “I am really anxious to start these workouts, and anxious to be able to work with them individually.”

In Alford, the Irish backs will get a demanding position coach, which shouldn’t be much of a change of pace from their former mentor, Mike Haywood, now the head coach at Miami (OH). With some talent and depth at the position, Alford mentioned that he will be looking to those players who are ready to compete.

“I think I’m very consistent about what I want. I am demanding and will be demanding,” he said. “But at the same time, I think I’m very fair. I don’t think you treat everybody the same. I can treat them all fairly, but everybody reacts to something differently. That’s my job. It’s not their job to tell me what makes them go. It’s my job to figure out who they are. The guys are going to know what I want. I’m gonna push them to succeed. I’m going to push them at a high level every day in practice, every day in games, on and off the field, academically.


And based on what he believes to be true, the players, too, have the desire to push themselves harder, especially on the playing field, to become more complete in order to achieve the success which has escaped them in recent seasons.

“The one thing I’m looking for from the players is just to compete every day,” he continued. “Compete at a very high level. They have to take pride in what they do, and that means all facets. We always want to have complete players, guys that can catch the ball out of the backfield, can run, obviously, and guys that are going to do a great job of blocking.

“I’m looking for guys that are going to be tough, guys that are going to compete, guys that are hungry to have success within the team structure. I think the guys are hungry to have success. They want to do well and they want to impress.”

Since the departure of Darius Walker, the Irish have featured a running backs-by-committee with two, sometimes as many as three backs sharing the workload. While Alford noted that he’s capable of adapting to any system the Irish may run next season, he also made it clear that the best players will play, and that much of that will be predicated on how those players take advantage of the reps they’re given.

“If it’s more productive for us to use ‘back by committee,’ then that’s what we’ll do,” he said. “But again, the best guys are going to play. That’s what’s great about competition, so I’m looking forward to a great competition this spring.”

And for the record: “Every single time you do something, that is a rep,” said Alford. “Guys say they need more reps. Well, every time they run a drill, that is a rep. So, if you want to play, you have to show up, and you show up on tape every single day with what you do.”

And those reps should help Alford develop a running backs depth chart. So often, there is a concern, especially in running backs-by-committee situations, where some backs feel underutilized or left out. And though Alford admitted to several job descriptions, stroking egos isn’t one of them.

For Alford, it’s all about the bigger picture, which applies to the team and University missions first.

“My job isn’t to keep them happy. That’s not what I was hired to do, to keep people happy,” he said bluntly. “Our jobs here are to win football games. When young men come on this campus, we want to make sure they leave as better people than when they came on. So our jobs are really to do that, make sure they graduate, and make sure that we win football games.”

In addition to taking over some of Haywood’s vacated coaching duties, Alford will also take over some of Haywood’s recruiting territory. One recruiting area that’s gone largely untapped during the Weis era is the state of Texas. Given the vast coverage of the state, it’s too much for one recruiter, so recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello will take over Haywood’s territory in the Houston area, and Alford will take over Ianello’s territory in North and East Texas, where he has hit the ground running with reportedly five offers out to prospects in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex.

“It’s fun to recruit,” he admitted while cracking a smile. “This is going to be a different experience recruiting with that ‘ND’ on your shirt than it’s been at other places. There is instantaneous respect when you walk in and say, ‘I’m at Notre Dame.’ People are going to take notice and listen, and that’s because of the history of the program, the academic status, everything involved. So that part of it is fun, but you still have to grind and do the work to sell your program.”

And with three sons of his own, Alford approach is simple, talk to the recruits as if he were talking to his own children.

“I think I’m honest with people,” he said. “I am not afraid to tell a young guy, ‘This is how it’s going to be. We’re going to push you academically, we’re going to push you to do the right thing socially, we’re going to push you to be the best you can be. We’re not going to cut corners and cut edges. And if that doesn’t fit for you, then you don’t need to come here and play for me, because this is how it’s going to be every day, and that would be more of a detriment to you than anything else.’

“I think if you can speak the truth to people, most times people are going to respond.”