(Correction): Brian Kelly Named Notre Dame Coach

[GTripp0012]

Full Disclosure: I am not unbiased here. Many of my teachers and student life co-workers at my college are very close to Brian Kelly, because they worked with him for a decade. I am also a Notre Dame fan, and rooted heavily for Cincinnati these past three years. It was pretty well known that, as long as Notre Dame still had interest in him (because they inquired on Kelly at the end of 2008), this move was inevitable. I will still be pulling for them to take the Sugar Bowl, unlike GMScud.

Both Kelly and Swarbrick would have absolutely preferred to have waited until January to get this done, but at those major schools like Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, USC, Florida, Va. Tech..etc, that's just not realistic. It's the athletic director's job to fill the position as quickly as possible, and once you've started the interviewing candidates, you can't ice everyone while you wait for the Sugar Bowl to get played so we can commence the inevitable.

The alternative would have been even worse, IMO: keep Weis as a lame duck coach and go to a bowl game, and then do the contract behind the backs of everyone and under the table, and then fire Weis after Christmas, run a quasi interview process, and hire Kelly the day after the Sugar Bowl.

That's not any more fair to the Cincinnati players, and it wouldn't be fair at all to Brian Kelly. This was done in the best way possible, IMO. If he's going to take the job, take it, and root for Cincinnati to complete their season, but don't waste their time coaching them while also calling recruits to come to ND.

[mlmdub130]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Full Disclosure: I am not unbiased here. Many of my teachers and student life co-workers at my college are very close to Brian Kelly, because they worked with him for a decade. I am also a Notre Dame fan, and rooted heavily for Cincinnati these past three years. It was pretty well known that, as long as Notre Dame still had interest in him (because they inquired on Kelly at the end of 2008), this move was inevitable. I will still be pulling for them to take the Sugar Bowl, unlike GMScud.

Both Kelly and Swarbrick would have absolutely preferred to have waited until January to get this done, but at those major schools like Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, USC, Florida, Va. Tech..etc, that's just not realistic. It's the athletic director's job to fill the position as quickly as possible, and once you've started the interviewing candidates, you can't ice everyone while you wait for the Sugar Bowl to get played so we can commence the inevitable.

The alternative would have been even worse, IMO: keep Weis as a lame duck coach and go to a bowl game, and then do the contract behind the backs of everyone and under the table, and then fire Weis after Christmas, run a quasi interview process, and hire Kelly the day after the Sugar Bowl.

That's not any more fair to the Cincinnati players, and it wouldn't be fair at all to Brian Kelly. This was done in the best way possible, IMO. If he's going to take the job, take it, and root for Cincinnati to complete their season, but don't waste their time coaching them while also calling recruits to come to ND.

nice post, great points. i still feel for the players when this stuff happens but it does happen

[Big C]

his players are furious because he was telling them that he was very happy at cinci and he wasnt going anywhere, etc. he hyped up cinci as a final destination job, and then turns around and takes the nd job. thats fine, just dont bs your own players the whole time, apparently he told them he wasnt going anywhere as recently as the pitt game...

[12thMan]

Originally Posted by Big C

his players are furious because he was telling them that he was very happy at cinci and he wasnt going anywhere, etc. he hyped up cinci as a final destination job, and then turns around and takes the nd job. thats fine, just dont bs your own players the whole time, apparently he told them he wasnt going anywhere as recently as the pitt game...

And at the end of the day, I think this is one of the reasons why Notre Dame won't dramatically better their recruiting. Programs take time to turn around and I wonder if Kelly, as good of a recruiter as he's been, will run into credibility issues down the road. Personally, I think the program is still suffering somewhat, perception wise, from the firing of Ty Willingham.

We'll see though.

[Big C]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

And at the end of the day, I think this is one of the reasons why Notre Dame won't dramatically better their recruiting. Programs take time to turn around and I wonder if Kelly, as good of a recruiter as he's been, will run into credibility issues down the road. Personally, I think the program is still suffering somewhat, perception wise, from the firing of Ty Willingham.

We'll see though.

kelly's recruiting has been average at best. this is or was only his 3rd year, he has been coaching mostly with players from a different regime. none of cinci's recruiting classes have been near the top 25. cinci only has one 4 star commit at this point in time, even with the #3 team in the country. no 5 stars, and has only had a handful of 4 stars since hes been there. i guess he just gets the most out of the players at hand, which is a great trait, and im sure that if he had stayed at cinci as the program got bigger he would have gotten better recruits.