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SOUTH BEND — As the days and hours tick down to Dec. 20 and the first-ever on-campus College Football Playoff game, a three-word mantra will drive Notre Dame football’s top-three scoring defense in its preparation for Indiana.
“All chips in.”
That’s been the reminder for coordinator Al Golden’s group ever since the calendar flipped to November and the seventh-seeded Irish started their final push to the postseason.
This particular phrase originated not with Golden, who holds a master’s degree in sports psychology from Virginia (1996), but from a team captain who happens to be the most game-tested player in program history.
“Jack Kiser actually said that,” second-year linebacker Jaiden Ausberry said near the end of the regular season. “I think it was two or three weeks ago after one of our lifts. He said, ‘All chips in,’ and we’ve all just been saying it ever since then.”
While full-team huddles typically break with “TGS,” coach Marcus Freeman’s overarching reminder of “The Golden Standard” for the program as a whole, Kiser’s line holds added meaning for one of the nation’s stingiest defenses.
Players might say it in a quick group huddle after lifting weights or absorbing a pregame talk. It’s often said on the Irish sideline just before the defense returns to the field.
What does it mean to the players themselves?
“It means give everything you’ve got – every play,” Ausberry said. “One play, one life. Win the interval.”
Those last two phrases are Freeman favorites that have pounded into the players’ collective psyche since he replaced Brian Kelly as Irish coach three years ago this month.
“All chips in” seems to be more targeted and more evocative, as players imagine a colorful stack of chips being pushed toward the center of a green felt poker table.
The stakes…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/notre-dame-football-defense-pushes-092933420.html
Author : South Bend Tribune
Publish date : 2024-12-15 09:29:00
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