Brian Kelly: Not Playing Trevor Lawrence Was More Difficult

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly reflected on facing Clemson without Trevor Lawrence

Much has been made of the fact that Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence did not play in the first matchup against Notre Dame, a game the Fighting Irish won 47-40 in double overtime.

The assumption, especially from Clemson fans, is that Clemson wins if Lawrence plays in that game. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly had a different take on the subjection.

"Well, it was actually more difficult, quite frankly, because we weren't sure what DJ (Uiagalelei)’s skill set was across the board and you know we didn't have enough film to really evaluate them," Kelly explained during a Sunday press conference. "And as you know, he threw for over 400 yards; he was outstanding. 

"We kind of said that maybe he wasn't the same kind of runner, but we had to respect his ability to run, read option and certainly cue runs," continued Kelly. "We really tried to defend Trevor, and then obviously have some things in there that a young quarterback may not have seen before. But that didn't work so much. He did pretty good."

Uiagalelei completed 30-41 passes for 439 yards and two touchdowns in the loss to Notre Dame. 

Kelly is not saying that Uiagalelei is better than Lawrence or harder to prepare for than Lawrence. He is simply explaining that with Clemson you know what to expect from the offense with Lawrence at the helm. That doesn't mean you can stop it or that it's easy to defend, but you know what to expect.

Uiagalelei had just one start under his belt, and the offense had a bit of a different look to it. When a quarterback has just one game worth of film there is going to be a limited package for the opponent to study, and game two usually means there's more to the package for the quarterback that the opposing defense could not prepare for because it hadn't shown up on film.

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