It’s hard to call anyone that’s a preseason first-team All-American anonymous. But two weeks into fall camp, Michael Floyd might as well have vanished, getting little mention from head coach Brian Kelly or members of his staff when talking about the team. Since Kelly’s arrival, Floyd’s work within the program has been done under far dimmer lights than the player many of us saw dominate during his six-plus games last season.
Getting off on the right foot might have been part of the problem. Floyd’s offseason wasn’t one to be proud of, his ticket for underage drinking and involvement in a fight back home in Minnesota over the holidays did little to make the coaching staff believe they had a team leader.
Even more intriguing, when I spent time with the coaching staff in June as summer conditioning workouts got underway, I had the sneaking suspicion that the new coaching staff wasn’t all that impressed with the game tape they had reviewed of their inherited star receiver. While no one would say it, I got the feeling that many thought Floyd was just “another guy,” his headlines and kudos a product of the media machine swirling around Notre Dame and head coach Charlie Weis’ explosive downfield passing game.
That perception of Floyd was confirmed today by Kelly when he spoke to the national press during Notre Dame’s media day.
“Michael Floyd,” Kelly said as he measured his words. “I thought Michael Floyd was over-hyped. I thought he was, at times, average.”
Kelly’s commentary mirrored some of the exact things I heard back in June, but also echoed some of the knocks we’ve heard about the great offensive players of the Weis era, players that put up numbers befitting top NFL draft picks but found themselves sliding down to be picked when the signing bonuses lacked the extra zeroes. Brady Quinn, draft slide. Jimmy Clausen, draft slide. Golden Tate, draft slide. Even players like John Carlson and Ryan Harris, guys that have been successful during their brief NFL careers didn’t go anywhere near as high as many thought they were capable of going.
Kelly even provided the details for his subpar critique of Notre Dame’s current offensive star.
“He ran down the field and they threw it up,” Kelly said. “He wasn’t a precision route-runner. He wasn’t asked to be. He was a match-up guy. You never saw him in position to run the dig or the drive or one-on-one where he had to beat press coverage on a slant on 4th-and-1. All those things that go to winning football games, I didn’t see all that. Maybe it’s because they had Golden Tate and he did all that for them. So my evaluation of Mike was based upon the film I’ve had.”
There were whispers and worries on message boards that Floyd was unhappy with the coaching change, unwilling to buy in with the commitment demanded by the new coaching regime. During his same comments, Kelly also refuted that notion unequivocally.
“In 20 years, I have not had a player who has worked as hard as Michael Floyd has worked,” Kelly continued. “And I mean that. He has out-worked everybody on the offensive side of the ball to the point where he has single-handedly set the bar for everybody else needs to bring their play.
“The last couple of days in situational live, he’s been dominant. He’s been dominant. And believe me, I’m not easily impressed. Again, going back to where I thought he was, watching film last year, wasn’t all that impressed with him. I’ve been very impressed with his work. He’s been outstanding, and he’s set a bar for the way all our other players need to compete on a day-to-day basis.
“That’s the Mike Floyd story.”
While the statistics won’t agree, the critique of Floyd’s body of work at Notre Dame is a fair one. Floyd’s first two seasons, both disrupted by injuries, never had him running precision routes or working as a complete receiver. Weis seemed content to take advantage of the match-up problems inherent with a physical receiver like Floyd, choosing to have his star wideout simply beat opponents as opposed to develop into a complete weapon.
While his numbers certainly look the part of an All-American, that reliance on Floyd’s jump ball game, that complacency to simply depend on Michael to beat the defensive back also contributed to Notre Dame’s mediocrity in the red zone, and didn’t help Michael’s development as a player.
(You could argue that injuries played the largest factor when choosing Floyd’s role in the game plan. With a cracked clavicle, both the coaching and medical staff likely wanted to keep him alone in space, away from the big collisions in the middle of the field.)
If what we heard today is any indication, it’s clear that Kelly and wide receivers coach Tony Alford (who saw first-hand what Floyd can do last season) have every intention on turning #3 into a complete wide receiver. More importantly, Michael’s embraced the challenge, pushing both himself and his teammates to new heights.
If you’re looking for a clue on what Kelly expects from Floyd this season, look no further than that wry smile that crept its way onto the head coach’s lips when he was talking about Floyd. That should be all you need to know.