Notre Dame Football: Chip Long says “this isn’t happiness camp we’re running”

I’m pretty sure I love Chip Long. The 3rd year offensive coordinator for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is a young star in the coaching business, but his remarks are so blunt, it feels like he’s been doing this much longer.

In a press conference after Notre Dame’s 14th spring practice, Chip Long stepped up to the podium and was very direct in his praise of many of the players — but he also rolled out the law of the land for him and Brian Kelly.

“If you don’t want to practice, the next guy’s in. There are no off days,” said Long. “That’s the best thing about it. Really on all our groups on offense. If you don’t want to practice, if you don’t feel like it, you could be knocked off the depth chart that day. The guys know that. In our room, it’s all about consistency and effort in practice, daily. And your execution and production. If you’re not doing that, next guy up. We’re Notre Dame. This isn’t happiness camp we’re running. We want to win games and win championships.”

Those remarks are extremely important to keep in mind when you’re asking, “what about this player or that player — why aren’t they playing?”

Long said the players know that there are no “gameday tryouts” with him. Whether we say “traits” or whatever else, Brian Kelly and this staff takes practice as serious as a heart attack, and it’s the main path to playing time.

Long also spoke about:

• What Tommy Tremble brings to the table.
• Ian Book is advanced calculus, and Phil Jurkovec is algebra.
• Running Back by committee for Tony Jones Jr., Jafar Armstrong, and others.
• HUGE Chris Finke fan.

And there’s plenty more. You can watch the entire Chip Long press conference in the player below.