Notre Dame Combine Dominance Shows It Has An Elite Strength Staff

Thanks to the work of the strength staff, which is led by Matt Balis, Notre Dame players have dominated the NFL Scouting Combine the last two years.

There has been a lot of talk over the last year about the pending contract extension for Brian Kelly, who has overcome the disastrous 4-8 campaign of 2016 to lead the Irish to a 33-6 record.

Kelly told Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports that he is close to finalizing a contract extension. 

The driving force behind the turnaround the last three seasons has been the strength and conditioning program, which is led by Director of Football Performance Matt Balis and his staff, which consists Director of Strength and Conditioning Jacob Flint, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach David Grimes and Assistant Director of Football Strength and Conditioning Robert Stiner.

I would hope that Kelly would recognize the driving force behind the turnaround, and that he's using his own negotiation to get justified major pay raises for the strength staff. 

During the three years when Balis has been running the strength program at Notre Dame the Fighting Irish have gone 19-1 at home. At the NFL Scouting Combine, former running back Tony Jones Jr. discussed how Balis played a major role in that success. You can listen to that HERE.

Notre Dame has also gone 11-2 in November since Balis arrived, and it has gone 9-0 in November the last two seasons.

But there is no evidence that further supports the dramatic turnaround that's happened since Balis arrived than what we’ve seen at the NFL Scouting Combine the last two years.

* - One participant only competed in one event

The combine numbers the last two seasons have been outstanding. What this graph shows is the top-10, top-5, top-3 and No. 1 finishes by a Notre Dame player in either the 40-yard dash, the vertical jump, the broad jump, the 3-cone drill, the pro shuttle (20-yard shuttle) and the bench press.

Notre Dame players have had 47 top-10 finishes in one of those drills. In the previous eight combines of the Kelly era, former Irish players combined for 61 top-10 finishes. That’s an average of 23.5 per combine the last two seasons compared to just 7.6 the previous eight combines. Notre Dame had 20 and 27 top-10 finishes the last two seasons, and the previous high in the previous eight combines was just 14.

Even more impressive, Notre Dame players have had 32 top-5 finishes, which is the same number from the previous eight combines. That’s an average of 16 top-5 finishes the last two seasons compared to just four per year the previous eight combines.

Notre Dame has had 18 top-3 finishes the last two seasons compared to just 15 total in the previous eight combines. You can thank for tight end Tyler Eifert for most of that, as Eifert had five of those top-3 finishes at the 2013 combine.

Notre Dame players had eight No. 1 finishes the last two seasons after having just four in the previous eight combines.

You get the point, right?

This isn’t just an improvement, this is a complete program course change, and it was immediate.

Notre Dame has not only had a dramatic turnaround under Balis compared to its own past production, it has been arguably the best program in the nation the last two years when it comes to producing combine standouts.

According to NFL Research, Notre Dame had the most “medals” of any program at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. A gold, silver or bronze medal is awarded to a “first, second, and third place finishers in each drill within each position group.”

2020 Combine Medal Count recap

Medals were awarded to the first, second, and third place finishers in each drill within each position group@NDFootball had the most total medals (7)@UMichFootball @MizzouFootball & @HawkeyeFootball tied for the most Gold medals (3) pic.twitter.com/LSWrsPg5w7

— NFL Research (@NFLPlus) March 2, 2020

Notre Dame was second in 2019 but had 10 medals, trailing Iowa by just one. Michigan was third with seven medals.

This is something the coaching staff is likely using as a major selling point on the recruiting trail, and it needs to be something Kelly is using to get a major pay raise for the strength staff. There’s no other way to explain the dominant combine performances of the last two seasons.

What the on-field results, and what the combine results show is that Balis and his crew have developed one of the nation’s elite strength and conditioning programs. If you know the inner workings of the football program, and what is still lacking from a nutrition standpoint compared to other elite programs, it makes the work done by the strength staff even more impressive.

If Kelly is using the team's recent success to get more changes to the program, one would hope he can use the success to get even more concessions from the school, which first and foremost involves giving Balis and the strength staff and nutritionists even more resources to provide for the players.

Should that happen, Notre Dame could have even more on-field success, even more combine success which means creating even more opportunities for its players.