If you didn’t catch it while getting ready for Notre Dame’s game against South Florida last week, the new Bulls head coach Jeff Scott is a longtime assistant at Clemson, having helped coordinate their offense from 2015-2019.
At age 39, Scott became the youngest head coach in the American Athletic Conference this past off-season as he tries to help turn things around for South Florida.
In the meantime, Scott has been around plenty of winning football in recent years as Clemson went to the College Football Playoff five times with him as a staff member and won it all twice in that time.
I missed Scott’s press conference following Saturday’s game but in scanning YouTube on Monday I stumbled into something you’ll probably find interesting.
In Scott’s post game press conference the South Florida head coach was about as complimentary to the 2020 Notre Dame football team as you’ll ever see an opposing head coach be:
- Scott calls Notre Dame “playoff caliber” and admits that “sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap”
- Scott says that “it felt like we were playing Clemson just in gold helmets”
- Scott says that it feels like this is the best team since Kelly has been at Notre Dame and thinks Kelly has pretty much said the same.
It’s high praise from a young coach who has been around a lot of winning. It’s clear from watching a few of the South Florida players meet the media after the game that their coaches said similar things to them as multiple players called Notre Dame “a playoff team”.
(Props to Carter Karels of the South Bend Tribune for asking the question that received this response)
It doesn’t guarantee anything but it’s certainly worth noting and discussing a bit, especially after the poor feeling many Notre Dame fans had after their showing in the opener against Duke.
What I do know is that even if the stars on this Notre Dame team don’t carry the same star power that perhaps a Jaylon Smith or Quenton Nelson have in recent years, but the depth of this Notre Dame team is at worst just as deep, but probably deeper in terms of talent than any other squad Brian Kelly has coached here.