Brian Kelly: 'My players want me to be more involved'

Following the worst season Brian Kelly has had at Notre Dame, the head coach conducted his annual individual meetings with his players, and one common message emerged.

They wanted to see him around the team more often.

"It's pretty clear that my players want me to be more involved with the entire football team," Kelly told Laken Litman of the Indy Star. "They like it when I'm there in the morning. They like when I'm around. They like when I'm having breakfast with them. They like when I'm available to them."

Kelly has been joining the players for their daily 5:45 a.m. workouts during spring practice, something he never used to do in previous years with the Irish. He's also not as involved in the offense after the hire of Chip Long as coordinator. That move has helped to free him up to look at other areas of the football team, something he admitted he struggled with last season.

"There weren't enough hours in the day," the 55-year-old said. "It became a situation where I was involved in the offense. I was worried about raising money for our new facility. I was not focused on the traits that I needed to build in this football team. And I'm not worried about that anymore."

As is the usual case, Notre Dame will face another tough schedule in 2017, but with a re-energized coach, expect the Fighting Irish to drastically improve on last season's failure.