Because you're going to. No matter what you think of him right now, you'll grow to dislike this guy. Why? Is he a bad guy? We don't know that yet. But he's the new coach of the program in South Bend that still thinks they're legit. And he's already got his Twitter feed updated with his new location, background, etc. Cinci-who?
Take a moment feel for the Cinci players:
The news didn't play well with Kelly's current team. Bearcat players were led into a meeting room, where Kelly told them he was leaving and thanked them for making his opportunity possible. One minute into the meeting, the door opened and receiver Mardy Gilyard walked out angry and alone, save his MVP trophy.
"He went for the money," Gilyard told The Associated Press. "I'm fairly disgusted with the situation, that they let it last this long."
Take a moment feel for the Cinci players:
The news didn't play well with Kelly's current team. Bearcat players were led into a meeting room, where Kelly told them he was leaving and thanked them for making his opportunity possible. One minute into the meeting, the door opened and receiver Mardy Gilyard walked out angry and alone, save his MVP trophy.
"He went for the money," Gilyard told The Associated Press. "I'm fairly disgusted with the situation, that they let it last this long."
Players weren't told of Kelly's decision until the banquet ended, nearly three hours after the news first broke. A few blinked back tears as they left.
"We already knew what he was going to say. We weren't giving him a round of applause or anything," tight end Ben Guidugli said. "It's like somebody turned their back on us. We brought this whole thing this far. We've come this far. To have someone walk out now is disappointing."
Of course, I thought Urban Meyer and Bob Stoops were "dreaming" of coming to Notre Dame... what happened to those? Oh, wait, I know... Domers didn't really want either of those guys. I bet they got the best guy available. Because nobody would turn down UND.
And this time it's going to be different. Charlie Weis was the wrong guy. Tyrone Willingham was the wrong guy. Bob Davie was the wrong guy. George O'Leary was the wrong guy. Brian Kelly -- the right guy!
But, hey, any time you can snag a guy who had a .542 winning percentage at a MAC school (Central Michigan), you have to snap him up.
20 comments:
I just feel really bad for the Cincy team. Going into one of the biggest games the school has ever played, on the national stage to prove their ability. And the man who got them there has decided they aren't good enough for him anymore.
Im waiting for that first game in September where I can be up in South Bend and hand this new coach his first loss for the Irish.
Kelly will be a whole lot harder to hate than Weis, but it seems like this was the worst kept secret in the coaching carousel so far this year-- nobody seriously believed the red herrings (Meyer, Stoops, Harbaugh) planted in the media by Notre Dame stooges anyways-- Kelly and Swarbrick were making googly eyes at each other since the Navy game. Wetzel reported that Kelly supposedly approached Swarbrick with a list of HIS demands, and that if UND wanted to be an elite program, certain changes had to be made for Kelly to sign on. That apparently included the Holtzian request for lowered admission standards for football players (once again, that tiresome riff repeated ad nauseum by Domer apologists and spin doctors). We shall see if that claim holds true, but I'm already starting to not like this guy.
And... it's official: whatever lingering defenders Charlie Weis had have left the building. Beyond his classless comment/rumor/slip of the tongue/lie/smear about Pete Carroll (with his half-assed "apology" days later), ND fanboys are livid that Weis advised Tate and Clausen to leave school, effectively leaving the cupboards half-full at best. While there are legit reasons for these guys to go pro (not the least of which the impending NFL salary cap), this was seen by the more delusional Domers as a scorched Earth policy to sabotage the program. To think that these same superfans were singing his praises 5 short weeks ago.
Gregg Z.
Brian Kelly = Dick Rod ?????
I definitely feel for those Cincy players. That was a shitty thing for Kelly to do, and his leaving the program should have been handled with more class. After winning an emotional Big East title, his guys deserved better.
That being said, I'm still not worried about Notre Dame. Everyone is gone and I don't think Brian Kelly has the chops to get the pieces back in place. Big Chuck was many things, but among those he was a hell of a recruiter. Brian Kelly took a program that was already making noise in the Big East (where the only speed bump is a middling Pitt team) and put them over the edge. He just took the reins as a talented group of players were getting developed and gelled. I think that Cincy would have been good this year as long as anyone who was semi-competent was calling plays.
He better start tempering those Notre Dame return to glory expectations pretty quickly too. They actually play a pretty tough schedule next year, and unless Michigan is terrible again I only see about 2 wins in there. I'm predicting that we start hearing about firing him after they start 0-6 going into the Western Michigan game. Good times.
This whole thing feels exactly like 5 years ago. Weis was heralded as a great hire, great fit, he 'gets' Notre Dame. He won a superbowl as the offensive mastermind of the Patriots, surely he can win in college.
Only Three 4 star recruits during his Cincy tenure.
I hate Brian Kelly. I didn't before, but I do now.
I would have stayed at Cincy and waited for a better job to open up. Its a lot easier to win at Cincy than it is at ND.
ND's cupboard certainly isn't depleted by any means. 5 star QB in Dayne Crist, 5 star TE in Rudolph, 5 star WR in Floyd plus Goodman, Walker, Kamara, Evans at WR. That offense will roll next year. The only question is what kind of defensive improvement will they show. I can't imagine they could possibly be any worse on D.
Prediction: Kelly wins big the next couple of year with the talent left over, then after that we'll see what his recruiting has brought in and how well they are coached up. Given his ability to develop at his previous stops, not seeing much of a problem with that.
Great hire for ND.
My prediction: the grumbling starts immediately when we beat them in South Bend to start the season because they still can't believe Purdue is ever good enough to beat them at any time. Every win we've had (and only Michigan State and USC have beaten them more) has been a fluke.
Guys, this is SO funny. Brian Kelly is a fiery "average" coach. Who really thinks he can out recruit Jim Tressel, Rich Rod, Mack Brown, Urban Meyer or Pete Carroll? Hell, he won't even get the best players in Big East country. Either the ND faithful have decided 7 wins per year is enough or there will be tons more turmoil in South Bend. I LOVE IT!
Kelly WILL be better than Weis, but will he be good enough for ND fans?
Can I hate this man? Yes!
After leading a team to the cusp of the biggest game in school history, he skates out of town before they play. Now if Cincy drops the Florida game, it won't be reflected on his record. What a chicken way to get an "undefeated" season on your resume. I feel terrible for those players. How can you spend a season motivating kids to work hard and be a team and then ditch them for a big paycheck?
In his press conference, he described the ND job as "A dream come true." Give me a break. Leave it to bowl-less ND to force it's way back into the football conversation by making a high-profile hiring a week after the regular season ends. He's the most recent in an increasingly long line of ND "rescuers." I hate him and I can't wait until our guys hand him a loss in his first game. Let's start this guy out on the right note. Go Boilers!
So when is the right time for a college coach to leave for another school?? Don't think there is.
I agree, E. While it sucks how it went down and how betrayed his players feel, there's no good time.
How about this? What if Nebraska had beaten Texas and Cinci was in the National title game? Yikes.
Why couldn't this announcement have come after he coached his last bowl game? I really don't understand what a couple weeks difference would mean to anything else, but it would make a hell of a difference to the kids playing in the bowl game.
The timing of this is really, really shitty.
Well, that is the tough part. This time is when a lot of recruiting is done. A coach will lose ground because he can't recruit for his next school. Plus, neither school can recruit without a head coach! Is he supposed to fake recruit until the bowl game and then quit?
I feel for the players as well. Blame the system. He had a perfect season and still didn't get to the title game! That had him looking elsewhere.
Hey, at least he thanked his players for creating that opportunity for him.
Gotta love a coach that will look a kid right in the face...a kid that he recruited...a kid that he has spent his years invested in coaching and grooming...and tells him he's staying put, only to walk out on him a week later.
It says EVERYTHING about your character and what kind of person you are. You don't have to lie to your kids in making a coaching change. I'm sure the Cincy team would have respected him a lot more had he said we're talking about it or its in negotiation or its not an option or whatever...but to straight face lie to your team...your family (exfamily)....just makes you a dirt ball.
I for one am looking forward to seeing Purdue hang some L's on him and we can laugh him out of town as well.
Purdue couldn't hang losses on Charlie Weis, why will they hang losses on a coach who actually knows what he is doing?
THAT being said, I could see Hope and Kelly both being at their respective schools for awhile and both are fiery personalities...so this matchup could get a lot more interesting the next few years.
Hey now, Purdue was a couple of plays away from hanging a second loss on Weis, and that would have been with a team finishing at .500. (And two as well on Willingham and Davie.)
I wonder ... at first I thought maybe Kelly was leaving because he thought this was his best shot at winning a title at Cincinnati and he couldn't play for it, but really, which team will be better in 2010, Cincinnati or Notre Dame?
If Kelly is lucky, he'll have enough time to build the team at Notre Dame that he was running at Cincinnati. Can he do it? Well, look at what he did at Cincinnati: 10-3, 11-3 (they played at Hawaii in 2008, thus the extra game), 12-0 plus one ... I've read that he's actually considered to be a pretty decent recruiter, given the challenges inherent in getting players to play football at Cincinnati. Plus it's either that or give some credit to Dantonio ... anyway, it's easier to recruit at Notre Dame. There will always be players who want to play in front of (Touchdown) Jesus.
I've lived 42 years in anti-Notre Dame country. I can hate any coach in any capacity for the Irish. Kelly sucks.
By the way, the Alabama game sucks. What the hell? Stop playing like crap and get the win. Maybe it's the announcers: they suck.
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