Kelly vs RR. WVU vs Cinci
So Kelly does the exact same thing RR did. Leaves his team before a BCS bowl game. Kelly gets praised RR gets KILLED. Kelly lies to his players to their faces. RR does not but does call Pryor before he tells his team, bfd.
Think about all the mess RR had to go through from WVU. Paper shredding, the phone calls to his voice mail that were painted as recruiting violations. WVU fans claiming RR threw the game vs Pitt. It really is amazing. The more I think about it the crazy people at WVU really doomed RR's hire. All the Michigan people had to read the complete BS about RR and WVU and made up their minds before he got here (Rosenberg etc.)
Also it was so messy at WVU, RR was almost forced to not say how great it was to be at Michigan, and he could not priase and say Michigan was a dream job. I think this also rubbed people the wrong way.
Its just interesting to see how much BS RR really had to put up with.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:02 PM ^
Just wait until they find all the shredded documents in Kelly's office.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:03 PM ^
RR got screwed in a lot of ways, but to say that Kelly lied to his players is a little misleading. I believe he said openly that ND was going to talk and that he was going to listen. I don't remember hearing a credible source say that he told the players he wasn't going anywhere...
December 11th, 2009 at 2:10 PM ^
Kelly told his team that he loved them and he loved coaching at Cincy and that he wouldn't leave.
Players openly left disgusted after the meeting with Kelly.
Please refer to this article and this post from yesterday:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/kelly-leaving-cincy-vs-rich-rod-leaving-wvu…
December 11th, 2009 at 2:16 PM ^
Missed that one. Thanks.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:06 PM ^
"We ain't going to lose him," Gilyard told FanHouse after Saturday's 45-44 win over the Panthers. "He ain't going nowhere. He already addressed the team on that a couple of days ago.
"That's dust under the rug. It's been popping up everywhere. Coach, he didn't shy away from it. Coach said, 'Listen guys, I'm here. I'm here to stay. I like you guys. I like the city. I like my team.' He's never lied to me personally."
News of Kelly's departure first broke late Thursday afternoon, before the start of Cincinnati's team awards banquet, though players said they weren't informed of the decision until after the event's conclusion.
"I don't like it," Gilyard told the AP. "I feel there was a little lying in the thing. I feel like he'd known this the whole time. Everybody knows Notre Dame's got the money. I kind of had a gut feeling he was going to stay just because he told me he was going to be here."
December 11th, 2009 at 2:13 PM ^
Doesn't "he ain't going nowhere" actually mean he is going somewhere?
December 11th, 2009 at 2:27 PM ^
"Doesn't "he ain't going nowhere" actually mean he is going somewhere?"
Sadly, it doesn't to the average D-1 football player unless he goes to UM, Stanford, ND, or Northwestern.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:55 PM ^
Average SAT scores for public university football programs were studied by someone in 2008. I apologize if this has already been discussed.
Interesting that the highest and lowest programs are only about 100 points apart. As you can tell, even top notch academic institutions like Michigan, Virginia, Cal, etc. are not terribly high relative to the general student population. (I realize there are now three parts required for the SAT, but this is the only data I saw. Here is a link to Michigan admission stats for the class which just entered:
http://www.admissions.umich.edu/about/
School, Average
TOP 10
Georgia Tech, 1028
Oregon State, 997
Michigan, 997
Virginia, 993
Purdue, 974
Indiana, 973
Hawaii, 968
California, 967
Colorado, 966
Iowa, 964
THE BOTTOM 10
School, Average
Oklahoma State, 878
Louisville, 878
Memphis, 890
Florida, 890
Texas Tech, 901
Arkansas, 910
Texas A&M, 911
Mississippi State, 911
Washington State, 916
Michigan State, 917
December 11th, 2009 at 4:34 PM ^
I hope that's only two tests not three. Even still, getting 500's sounds ridiculously low to me.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:14 PM ^
already coming down the pipes.
This AP story is not very flattering:
http://foxsports.foxnews.com/cfb/story/10505666/Cincinnati%27s-Kelly-ac…
December 13th, 2009 at 3:11 PM ^
It would make sense that it would come later. It didn't come immediately with RR, either.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:30 PM ^
An Irish Catholic leaving to go to Notre Dame will be hyped even more intensely than Saint Dantonio has been at MSU. The backlash will be squashed by a Tebow-ian wave of ring-kissing. Lepers will be lined up at his office door waiting to be healed.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:34 PM ^
If RR had a winning record he wouldn't be dealing with half the garbage, plus leaving Cincinnati is different than leaving WVU. Most of the initial negativity was from West Virginia, but when RR limped through a 3-9 season it shifted from there to here and is now mirrored in both places and even leaks onto the national stage because of it.
It sucks, because with Kelly at ND Michigan will probably have two games on their schedule that impact their national hopes once they get thing running well. Lots of people want Rodriguez fired but I'm afraid of what will happen if he does get fired. I'm not thrilled with Harbaugh or Miles and Kelly was the best prospect schooled in the spread. I doubt UM would replace RR with Butch Jones.
Here's to winning 8-9 games so the torturous speculation can stop.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:45 PM ^
But I agree - if UM had finished the year strong and gone to a bowl game, then I think RichRod's troubles would have been quickly forgotten.
As far as potential replacements ... I've been thinking about that for a while. Don't want to start a thread on it, as it'd be interepretated as a "fire RichRod" thread.
I'm following Brady Hoke pretty closely - let's see if he can turn SDSU around, too. Also, as I expressed in another thread, Chuck Martin is a personal favoriate. I'm hoping Nick Sheridan and Mike Hart get into the coaching busienss soon.
Oh, and maayyybeee Ron English, though I am starting to doubt his coaching ability.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:35 PM ^
If I remember correctly, RR left WVU without saying anything to his players. At least Kelly had the decency to meet with his players and tell them he's leaving and not take the easy way out. On the other hand, Kelly broke the news right after the team banquet. The day was supposed to be a time to celebrate the season. However, the day will be remembered in the players eyes by Kelly's departure. My perspective: couldn't Kelly have put off the signing until today out of respect for his players??? Announcing the departure after the team banquet (and after announcing to the team that he wasn't going anywhere) very much seems like a slap in the face.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:40 PM ^
WVU fans did indeed make it real rough for RichRod. Additionally, its clear in hindsight that the WVU administration and RichRod were't seeing eye-to-eye for a while. For that reason, WVU made a big stink out of the law suit, and tried to dig up as much dirt on RichRod as possible.
... However, two years later, the reason that people are skeptical of RichRod is not because of the prejudice that WVU fans created, but rather because he's 8-16. For better or worse, "winning cures all." And RichRod hasn't really helped himself yet.
December 11th, 2009 at 4:43 PM ^
I have always thought that Michigan might have done RichRod a disservice when he first joined the program. I have nothing other than my opinion to back this up, but what I will suggest seems plausible.
When Beilein came on board, WVU backed off on the damage clause in his contract, and accepted less than the contract amount, thus saving someone (U of M?) a lot of money. I suspect U of M thought WVU would do the same thing with RichRod, but they didn't.
I followed the case closely and read all of the pleadings and depositions. Michigan and RichRod took a hard line until the day that Mary Sue Coleman received notice that her deposition was required. At that point, the case was immediately settled under the terms of the contract RichRod had with WVU for the full amount. Had Coleman's depo been taken, she would have been under oath and asked questions which might not have painted her, AD Martin and the University of Michigan in the best possible light. In a deposition, you can mold your answers in your favor, but only so much. It makes good sense to tell the truth. What to do? Pay the money and get on with things. You gambled and things did not work out as you had hoped and it cost us some money.
However, by opening things up to all of this scrutiny, RichRod was painted in the worst possible light. In hindsight, it was a big mistake.
Sound plausible?
December 11th, 2009 at 2:44 PM ^
Kelly didn't leave with any decency. The Cincinnati players found out he was leaving from the media. They then had to sit through the entire team banquet waiting to hear from Kelly himself, until finally being called into a room for a meeting. After hearing the first words from BK, Mardy Gilyard and a couple others left the room in disgust. Brian Kelly is a good businessman, and a good coach, not a good person. Rich Rod was painted in an awful light, and BK definitley deserves worse. And this is coming from a UC season ticket holder. I appreciate his coaching genius and the newfound success at UC, but he really stabbed the players and fans in the back. And it says something when Mardy Gilyard, a huge supporter of BK in the past walks out and has this to say. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlENj3F3OLY&feature=autoshare_twitter
December 11th, 2009 at 2:47 PM ^
RichRod's troubles didn't start because of the *way* he left. They started because the WVU administration was hell bent on starting shit with that law suit, and digging up dirt and trash talking RichRod as much as possible
December 11th, 2009 at 2:56 PM ^
Are you just going to post the same thing over and over again?
December 11th, 2009 at 3:22 PM ^
Did you care when Kelly "stabbed the players and fans in the back" when he left CMU to coach Cincy?
December 11th, 2009 at 3:06 PM ^
Everyone I ever knew that switched companies for a new job lied to the staff up until the resignation was submitted.
Some people then feel betrayed, lied to and upset.
But if you don't lie, you risk getting immediately canned from you present job which reduces your bargaining ability with the new employer.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:16 PM ^
I'd be OK with us leaving behind the whole "Brain Kelly LIED! SCOUNDREL!" mantra. It seems a bit odd that we'd latch onto something like that. JMO.
Kelly played the subterfuge game, so what? It's Coachspeak and now he's at Notre Dame and that will be forgotten by everyone in the world (except maybe the posters here) by right about 4 minutes ago.
We have our own concerns, and they are legion.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:32 PM ^
The "OMG Brian Kelly is an awful person!" stuff just makes whoever posts it look bad.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:28 PM ^
I think there is a difference between the 2007 RichRod situation at WVU and the current Kelly situation at Cincy. Rodriguez was born and raised in WV and played for the school. He was a hometown boy, and had just signed a contract extension after a brief dalliance with Alabama. Kelly, on the other hand, has been a bit of a mercenary for his whole career. It was a foregone conclusion that he would eventually leave, be it for ND or another powerhouse.
I also think the media has built up the idea of Kelly as ND's "first choice" for months now, so this hire came with a certain degree of resolution. Once the Les Miles situation blew up, Michigan went into crisis mode, at least in the eyes of the media and casual, non-Michigan fan observers. Every story needs an angle. The Kelly angle is "ND gets it's man". The RichRod angle was "he walked out on his team".
December 11th, 2009 at 5:22 PM ^
You hit the nail on the head right here. It's been obvious Weis was on his way out since they lost to Navy. Every story about the coaching change has mentioned that Kelly would be a top choice and that he wanted ND too. So, now when Gilyard, UC fans etc start saying Kelly stabbed them in the back, the nation's response is "Haven't you people been reading the papers for the last month? what did you expect?"
Can't say I disagree. People here were saying Kelly to ND a year ago. The Rich Rod thing really came out of nowhere and there was so much confusion, it was like 10 angles at once, some good, some bad.... and then 2008 happened.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:38 PM ^
It's not about what Kelly did. I really don't think he did anything that wrong. Its more about what a mess was created by WVU and the aftermath of the hire. Now you can see just how ridiculous the whole deal was.
Kelly can do whatever he wants. I don't care if he lied, im sure it happens with CEO's all the time. A mans got to eat.
December 11th, 2009 at 4:31 PM ^
An observation:
If you are mad at FSU for directing Bowden to step down, you probably don't like what Kelly did.
If you think Bowden wasn't earning his keep by winning, you probably think it's a business and Kelly did what he needed to do.
Second observation:
Why do can coaches leave after saying one thing and doing another and head right to the next job... while the Athletes can't transfer unless they want to sit out a year. Because INSIDEtheBCS tell us this is all about the athletes, right?
December 13th, 2009 at 9:06 PM ^
My best guess is that the NCAA has the rule mandating athletes to sit out to discourage frequent transferring, mainly to maintain some semblance that the degree is the focus of their time in college but also to prevent crazy shifts in competitive balance every year. No transfer restrictions would be similar to having every player in the NFL be a free agent every off season--except worse because we're dealing with younger (and therefore most likely less mature and lacking perspective) people.