It Appears That They Can't Screw It Up

Yes, Kelly is a very good offensive coach at places where there is a lot less pressure. Plus he has never had a great defense at either CMU or Cincinnati. We have seen first hand what a season or two can look like with a below average defense and a young offense.

Dang it! I was hoping ND would overlook the obvious and pick a coach that wasn't such a perfect fit.

Yes, I realize I'm grasping at straws.

Like I said earlier, he has the track record for switching jobs. He pulled the same stuff at CMU, telling the players he was not going to leave and then he bolted. Yeah, it's Central, but that is not the point.

they can screw this up. honestly.

Notre Dame. I got a scoop for ya.

I read [note: I seriously read this] that Kelly is pro choice. How the hell does someone substantiate that a football coach is pro choice? Who knows! But I'm sure he is. So don't hire him, or the Pope will be very cross with you.

Also, I heard Ron Zook goes to Mass six times a week. I'm just sayin.

...a guy, whether he's successful or not, with a penchant for "looking to the next level" honestly stay at ND till he jumps to the pros?

Yeah… so I guess our best spin on this is that it is possible for really good college head coaches to implode spectacularly when they move jobs. I mean, just look at… aw, hamburgers. That's our head coach.

I stay for the South Park references.

Far-fetched, but is it beyond the realm of possibility that ND might re-hire either Bob Davie or Ty Willingham? Both are sitting on their hands at the moment and both have been there before so they would not have to be indoctrinated into the culture and could hit the ground running. "Right the wrong" kind of spin on it from ND's perspective, and "second chance" scenario for the individuals. Am I crazy?

Anyway, I do think Kelly is a perfect fit for them so prolly a moot point anyway. Whatevah.

GO BLUE!

The evil BCS system is actually picking coaches.
If Les Miles had not been playing for the title game, he would have gone to Michigan perhaps.
If Texas had lost then Cincinnati would be in the title game and Kelly would be unavailable.
Kelly has to be thinking: OK - I am undefeated and still cannot be national champion? Why? Because Cincinnati is not Notre Dame.
Why stay? I've accomplished all I can - here.

I, for one, hope that Kelly turns ND around quickly. We play them every year and it is a hell of a lot more exciting when we are both good than when it is the Cripple Fight it was in 2008. I am sick of hearing the announcers for the UM-ND game always talking about the "two formerly proud programs" and "two of college football's most storied programs that have fallen on hard times."

Yes, I am still assuming that we will turn around, as well.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Kelly coach a couple of years at ND and then try to parley some success into a pro gig. He has been on a pretty consistent trajectory (outside of the 13 years he coached at GVSU, but that might have been more due to schools not seeking him out). He basically coached 3 years at CMU, then three years at Cincy before (presumably) moving on. Just long enough to win a bunch of games and then upgrade to the next program. He doesn't really have any ties to ND, and if he can succeed there some pro team will probably take a chance on him (especially in the midwest). He will be a terror at ND for a couple of years, but the silver lining is that he is unlikely to stick around that long.

RichRod was just as hot as Kelly was at the time. It's funny that we got a hot coach, yet none of us have any confidence in our own program anymore. Instead, we're all just worried about what ND does, as if the only way to beat them is if they pick a shitty coach.

If RichRod lives up to his billing then Brian Kelly at ND won't be an issue.

weis set the pay scale pretty high for a coach with leverage.

Not to say ND cant, and should not pay weis rates, but Kelly will, and should not settle for anything less than chuckles had.

Whoa, whoa. Can't? When did that word enter your vocabulary? What, is the job too difficult? What, you don't have enough experience? Oh, you're not smart enough? Where's your confidence? Look, Elaine, let me tell you a story. When I first studied karate...

Yeah, karate. I had no support. Not from him, not from Newman, no one. The first time I sparred with an opponent, I was terrified. My legs, they were like noodles. But then I looked inside, and I found my katra.

Katra?

Yeah, your spirit, your, uh, being. The part of you that says, "Yes, I can!"

So I listened to my katra and now I'm dominating the dojo. I'm class champion.

Yeah… so I guess our best spin on this is that it is possible for really good college head coaches to implode spectacularly when they move jobs.

I have a better spin. If he goes to Notre Dame it means he won't stay two more years at Cincinnati and then make a short drive up I-71 for his next job. That's the nightmare scenario, not Notre Dame.

Notre Dame, like Michigan, is a storied program. We play them every year for the next 4000 years.

If they suck, it's just another team in Indiana.

Bring em on.

finds his way back into the NFL as an offensive coordinator... what's the over/under on whether or not he can successfully lobby to bring Jimmah into his folds the fold?

"We had another coach [Dantonio] who looked us straight in the face and said he wasn't leaving. We remember that."

That's unpossible: that would be bearing false witness, and the Bible on his desk very clearly prohibits that.

I'm confident Rodriguez will turn things around and build an excellent program. But I don't know much about these things, so I'm prepared to be wrong.

But either way, we're going to need strong opposition: if our team Returns to Glory (TM) then we'll want to display that by beating strong teams. With the Big Ten down, that means our ND game is going to have to be a quality win, if we win it. And if the team remains weak, then playing and beating a weak Notre Dame team will just serve to paper over problems. It's good for a team if the bar is set really high: good teams and coaches will rise to the occasion, and bad teams and coaches will show what they are made of.

Kelly seems like an excellent coach. Let Notre Dame hire him and let's get down to business.

to be decided by the weekend
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/sports/ncaafootball/08irish.html?_r=1&hpw

Be pissed if it's Michigan Man Jim.

He couldn't have done that. That is a Rich Rodriquez type move. Dantonio has a lot of class and could never do such a thing.

The only circus that's overshadowing our program is theirs. What a joke. They are considering two guys who field questionable defenses. Kelly is Weis light, and it's not just because he's merely overweight. Kelly's defenses can't stop mild Big East offenses (like Pitt and UConn). He's beaten zero quality opponents in the MAC Plus Big East. At least Harbaugh's beaten USC twice. But he also produced Scott Shafer. Not exactly the way to go if you want to preach defense.

They need to go with a defensive coach. Their defense is in even worse shape than ours. To go with offensive minded coaches is to change nothing. They might as well have kept Weis. They're going to be bad for a long time if either one of those hires goes through.

By the way, Kelly's sparse record is also directed at those of you who for whatever reason mistakenly believe he should have been our coach. That's pretty laughable as well.