OT: Brian Kelly Overrated?

Submitted by Nolongerusingaccount on

I was listening to the Michigan Insider podcast, and Sam Webb had an interesting question as to whether Brian Kelly was a bit overrated.  I hate Notre Dame as much as the next fan, but I also recognize Notre Dame as being one of the toughest college football jobs.  Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing him turn purple in a couple years. 

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ijohnb

September 26th, 2016 at 12:10 PM ^

teams seem to be kind of "soft."  I know that is an overrated expression and sometimes without a clear meaning.  But that is the first word that comes to my mind about ND teams under Kelly.  Soft.  I typically have thought that they scheme well on offense until this year.  This year has been a train wreck for ND.

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Gulogulo37

September 26th, 2016 at 12:11 PM ^

ND is one of the toughest jobs in football? It's not like it used to be, but come on, it's not Kansas.

Also, I just don't hear him talked about as one of the top coaches in America, so it's hard to say if he's overrated.

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ijohnb

September 26th, 2016 at 12:12 PM ^

is talking about managing expectations as a coach.  Notre Dame is its own football brand.  It comes with incredible pressure to perform.  Put it this way, ND went 10-3 last year and the NC game 3 years ago and there is no question that Kelly's seat is already pretty warm.

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M-Dog

September 27th, 2016 at 10:08 AM ^

There is no margin of error.  One "bad" season (i.e. like a whopping 4 losses) and they want your head.  

You can't survive multiple 4 loss seasons like Lloyd did in the 90s while you hit your stride.

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unWavering

September 26th, 2016 at 12:10 PM ^

Notre Dame is one of the toughest football jobs? News to me. Yes, I realize they have different standards for players, but it's not exactly hard to recruit for Notre Dame.

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tbeindit

September 26th, 2016 at 12:38 PM ^

Notre Dame has one of the most overrated schedules every year. It's because they always schedule brands and/or big name teams. However, when you only do home and homes, teams will vary massively when you face them. They don't take a team in good times and bad, just whenever that home and home ends up occurring. I mean, look at Texas. They get credit all offseason for scheduling a big name, but Texas is trash.

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Gr1mlock

September 26th, 2016 at 1:14 PM ^

That's not entirely fair. They play Stanford and USC every year, who are consistently solid if not elite.  Even if they're dodging the meat of the ACC this year, there are some decent teams there.   Yeah, they get overhyped for playing big names in down years, but they pretty consistently have a strong SOS by most objective metrics.  

 

I think the  bigger issue for "toughness of job" isn't the schedule so much as managing expectations.  The fan base and boosters at ND seem to believe that they should be gifted a national title every year, and should get it while only recruiting choir boys.  Dealing with that while also dealing with the heightened admission requirements and recruiting limitations of ND (which are a thing, same as at Stanford) makes it, to me, a tough job.  I'm not sure notably tougher than other elite blue blood schools, but it's among the more demanding jobs in college football.  

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WolvinLA2

September 26th, 2016 at 1:08 PM ^

Oh please. Most years, both recently and in history, one of Stanford or USC isn't that good. And this year they don't have Michigan, FSU, Clemson or Louisville. Their schedule is quite weak this year, in fact. Some years it's very hard, but that's any team.

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ijohnb

September 26th, 2016 at 1:13 PM ^

man, you are pretty much spot on here now that I look at it.  Their schedule is garbage next year too.  The USC/Stanford/M or MSU thing still stands, that is a tough batch of rivalry games to play almost every year.  But the "ACC portion" of their schedule is really weak this year and next.

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Blue_In_Texas

September 26th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^

I wouldn't say he is overrated. He's the best coach they've had in a while and they did make a NC, even though they got stomped. ND is a very easy place to recruit, and the floor for that program should be pretty high (much like here), but I don't think many people say he's a top 5 coach or anything. He does seem like a piece of shit though.

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Farnn

September 26th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^

I actually looked at his record coming into this season and wondered how he wasn't on the hot seat.  He's been mediocre all but 1or 2 years and that 12-1 year was one of the luckiest teams I can remember.  I guess after Weis and Willingham, expectations are much lower in South Bend. 

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Reader71

September 26th, 2016 at 12:27 PM ^

Great offensive mind, but I really think his attitude holds him back from being a great head coach. I could be wrong, but I don't imagine his players love him or would run through a wall for him. That type of coach is ok while he is winning, but he can lose the team if a few losses start to pile up.

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ZooWolverine

September 26th, 2016 at 4:51 PM ^

On the other hand, he defended the defense and canned the DC the next day--maybe it's better to have BK complain about you? In seriousness, I thing you're absolutely right that this must impact his players--he seems very ready to criticize players and other coaches publicly, but I've never heard him say anything non-positive about himself (though I can't say I listen to him much).

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Reader71

September 27th, 2016 at 11:47 AM ^

I would argue that very, very few do. They commit to ND, not BK. Cool story bro, but I've seen Kelly's recruiting pitch. He recruited my brother when he was at GVSU. He came off as a huckster, very confident in himself to the point of arrogance. We were put off by him, despite the fact that his program was a consistent winner. He was weird -- seemed more like a pro coach than a college coach, in that he was selling himself instead of the program.

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lilpenny1316

September 26th, 2016 at 12:27 PM ^

That's pretty solid.  Yes, his non Manti Te'o defenses have been a bit leaky, but I think his coaching job last year was pretty good.

If you look at their recruiting averages from 2012-2015 according to 247, they are on par with Texas, UCLA, Tennessee, Clemson and Texas A&M.  So his coaching job seems to have produced results better than most of those programs with similar talent.

(LINK)

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