Kelly to ND

[MajorMike]

Brian Kelly to Notre Dame

CFN Analysis

Pete Fiutak

It's not Bob Stoops after all, Urban Meyer was never in play, Jim Harbaugh was just a rumor, and Kirk Ferentz was never really a part of the discussion.

According to published reports, Cincinnati's Brian Kelly will become the next head coach at Notre Dame with the announcement expected to come Friday after Kelly has had a chance to talk to his players and gotten through the team's football banquet. The contract is still being finalized, but the Irish aren't going to break the bank to get him, and there won't be any crazy numbers, years, or anything out of the norm.

Notre Dame aimed too low.

There's no question that Kelly is one of the new stars on the college football scene, having turned Central Michigan into the MAC's top program and taking an afterthought of a Cincinnati team into a BCS-caliber program that was a missed field goal away from playing for the national title. His offense became one of the most efficient and most effective in America no matter who was running it. Whether it was Ben Mauk, or Tony Pike, or Zach Collaros, the Bearcats moved the ball on the way to three double-digit win seasons, a 34-6 record with two BCS appearances and two Big East championships. There's no question that he's a great prospect, but Notre Dame didn't need to go for a prospect when it had its chance to take a shot at a proven superstar.

The problem isn't that the Irish are going with Kelly, who might turn out to be the next Urban Meyer, it's that it didn't appear that AD Jack Swarbrick and the powers-that-be made an honest run at the real Urban Meyer.

The rumors and inside information (from some very, very trusted sources) made it a done deal that it was going to be Stoops, but that obviously wasn't the case. Stoops is a lot of things, but he's not known in any circles and in any way for being a liar, so when he continued to vehemently deny that he wasn't going to leave Oklahoma, things just didn't add up. At the very least, though, Notre Dame was thinking about him. The same can't be said for Meyer.

There's no question that Meyer would be a dream fit for the Irish and could've made a run at him after screwing things up the first time around, and going instead with Charlie Weis after Meyer took the Florida job. This was the one shot the program had of assuring itself a spot in the BCS and in the national title chase year after year after year, and now it's going to bank on Kelly, who has gotten Cincinnati to the BCS, twice, but doesn't have the proven track record as a recruiter that Meyer or Stoops have, and he hasn't actually proven he can take a team to a national title. He was close, and he'd be preparing for Alabama right now if that one final second ticked off the clock in the Big 12 Championship or if Hunter Lawrence had missed, but Meyer has won two of them.

This was when Notre Dame could've gotten its star of stars. Tim Tebow is leaving, Florida has to reload a bit and the SEC is getting nastier, and it's going to be more work, more headaches, and more of a fight now than it has been in past seasons. No, the Gators aren't going away, but this was a run, a great run, and it's going to take a major effort to stay at such a lofty perch with Alabama rocking and rolling, with Tennessee improving, with Georgia reloading, and with LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, and the rest of the league, outside of Vanderbilt, getting better and stronger. In other words, Meyer might have wanted to be wooed, wined, and dined and be shown that the grass might be greener in Indiana.

But now the focus is on Kelly, who openly campaigned for the job from the start, made his move to say all the right things and be the coach that could potentially turn Notre Dame into a superpower once again, and he's going to be a great spokesman and figurehead for the Irish. He's smart, quick, and he's going to be a good new face for a program that had to live through the insufferable joylessness of the Weis regime.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the hire. This might be the right coach and the right fit and the right time. But if Florida keeps on playing at a national title level year after year, and if Kelly doesn't get Notre Dame to the BCS on a yearly basis, and that's where the expectations are set at now, there will be a segment of the Irish fan base that will always wonder what might have been.

[IronMexican]

So he's not coaching in the game against UF?

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

So is it official?

[Cant_Be_Faded]

kinda like aggy

[Blake]

The contract is still being finalized, but the Irish aren't going to break the bank to get him, and there won't be any crazy numbers, years, or anything out of the norm.


because they broke the bank on Charlie they really can't afford to do it again until his payout is done.

At least Kelly has somewhat of a college football track record unlike some of his predecessors.

[SpursFanFirst]

So is it official?

It says in the article that an announcement could come Friday.

I don't really know anything about this coach, but I get the feeling he's nothing more than the "flavor of the month." I hope I'm wrong, but it's not unlike ND to go after someone with nothing more on his resume than a recent hot streak. UGH.
I hope they aren't too hasty in making this decision.

Anyone else annoyed by the fact that schools can talk to coaches while there are still games to be played...postseason included?

[SpursFanFirst]

The problem isn't that the Irish are going with Kelly, who might turn out to be the next Urban Meyer, it's that it didn't appear that AD Jack Swarbrick and the powers-that-be made an honest run at the real Urban Meyer.

I know they didn't go after him this time, but didn't they want him last time and he turned them down?
I know it's a new AD and such, but still. Why waste your time with someone who has already said no?

and oh my goodness...let's hope and pray they've learned from their idiotic mistake of throwing a contract extension at the next person who walks through the door unproven.

This whole thing makes me want to :bang

[samikeyp]

I hate being right. :D

[kskonn]

It says in the article that an announcement could come Friday.

I don't really know anything about this coach, but I get the feeling he's nothing more than the "flavor of the month." I hope I'm wrong, but it's not unlike ND to go after someone with nothing more on his resume than a recent hot streak. UGH.
I hope they aren't too hasty in making this decision.

Anyone else annoyed by the fact that schools can talk to coaches while there are still games to be played...postseason included?


For the guys that Notre Dame could realistically get I was pretty happy with this hire. HE has the same type of track record that Urban meyer had a few years back. He has always taken over average programs and turned them into very good programs. he may not be the answer but at least he has experience turning around college programs and getting them to the BCS, I feel like he gives ND a chance.

[The Reckoning]

you know a coach is great when he bails out on his team right before a bowl. good luck with a loyal coach, ND.

*cough*fran*cough*

[Trainwreck2100]

cincy gonna get smoked in teh sugar bowl now, I hate Tebow gonna go out on a win

[DisgruntledLionFan#54,927]

I don't really know anything about this coach, but I get the feeling he's nothing more than the "flavor of the month." I hope I'm wrong, but it's not unlike ND to go after someone with nothing more on his resume than a recent hot streak. UGH.


Jesus, this is about as ill-informed as you can get.

Built a championship team(s) at GVSU, led the Chips to their first winning season in 7 years and their first MAC championship in over a decade, two BE titles and an undefeated season with the NCAAF powerhouse Bearcats.

One could argue that his resume is better than Tressel's and Meyer's before they got their first big-time gig.

I'd trade RichRod for Kelly in a NY minute.

[samikeyp]

Jesus, this is about as ill-informed as you can get.

Built a championship team(s) at GVSU, led the Chips to their first winning season in 7 years and their first MAC championship in over a decade, two BE titles and an undefeated season with the NCAAF powerhouse Bearcats.

One could argue that his resume is better than Tressel's and Meyer's before they got their first big-time gig.

I'd trade RichRod for Kelly in a NY minute.

If Kelly turns ND around, the voices of disgruntlement in Ann Arbor and East Lansing will echo loudly. Good chunks of both fanbases wanted him.

[DisgruntledLionFan#54,927]

And rightly so. The guy has been coaching in their backyards for nearly two decades.

[IronMexican]

cincy gonna get smoked in teh sugar bowl now, I hate Tebow gonna go out on a win

You never know. WVU was supposed to get crominated back in 2008.

[symple19]

Hmph - I still woulda gone with a defensive minded guy. I will enjoy watching ND continue it's mediocre ways

[SpursFanFirst]

For the guys that Notre Dame could realistically get I was pretty happy with this hire. HE has the same type of track record that Urban meyer had a few years back. He has always taken over average programs and turned them into very good programs. he may not be the answer but at least he has experience turning around college programs and getting them to the BCS, I feel like he gives ND a chance.


I hope you're right. It would be a nice change of pace.

[SpursFanFirst]

Jesus, this is about as ill-informed as you can get.

Yeah. that's probably why I said I don't know much about him.
I didn't come in here pretending to be an expert on him.

I hope my "feelings" are wrong. Since Lou Holtz, though, ND has a habit of bebopping people through who are the wrong fit for them.
Excuse me for not getting all giddy on this possible hire.
I'll wait a period of time to make an "informed" decision.

[kskonn]

I hope you're right. It would be a nice change of pace.


Well I can't say that I am right but here is what I know when you look back.

Bob Davie-no head coaching experience in college. Very good d-coordinator not a great head coach.


Ty w.- Won with Davies players- never really got a chance to bring along his recruits, based on what happened to him after he left he did not appear to be a good head coach. Got fired so that ND could pursue Urban, plus he had a bad record.

Weiss- Very good offensive coordinator in the NFL, no proven college experience, won with Willinghams players, did not win this year with his own players.


so based on the above I think that Notre Dame finally went out and got a proven head coach who has consistently turned teams around. Now he can take his skills and combine it with a ton of resources($$$$) that he has never had access to before. So with that said it gives me hope. When florida hired Myers they didn't know he would be as good as he is, they could only go based on his past performance. If you look at that model then Notre Dame has basically followed their foot print for creating a strong program. Hopefully we yield similiar results.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

It's official. Kelly won't coach in sugar bowl.

[symple19]

It's official. Kelly won't coach in sugar bowl.

It really fucking bugs me when coaches do this. They chalk it up to things like getting an early start on recruiting. Bullshit. At least finish your season, which in Cincy's case appears to be their best ever. I know contracts for college coaches mean nothing anymore, but c'mon.

I think somebody mentioned not allowing coaches to be wooed until after the season. I wholeheartedly agree.

[PuttPutt]

It's official. Kelly won't coach in sugar bowl.


What a fucking joke. Dude can't wait to bail on his own team to coach another. Glad to see that there is ZERO loyalty to any team any more. Can't wait to watch Kelly fail to the great expectaions of the Irish.

Nice hire, but bad timing IMHO.

[symple19]

karma

:depressed

sigh

I almost hate it for ya 4cc. It's seems like ND is trying too hard. I understand that the pressure under the dome is probably unparalleled in college sports, but come on. How about a thorough searching process by the ND admin?

But really, what does ND care about Kelly leaving his team early? This is on Kelly for even listening to their overtures when he has a huge fucking game to prepare for. ND wanted it's guy, and got him. Kelly (and all CFB coaches for that matter) need to exhibit some goddamn class and at least wait until the season is over. This shit really pisses me off. Why couldn't Kelly have said, "I'll take the job but please don't announce it until after I lead my present team through the game"? What is going to happen in that month? Is the entire recruiting class going to melt? Hell no. Perhaps more than any other school Notre Dame gets recruits based on the name and the legend that is ND football.

Oh well. The same shit is going to happen next year and the next and the...

[SpursFanFirst]

Cincinnati's Kelly accepts Notre Dame coaching job
Associated Press
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - Notre Dame has settled on Brian Kelly as the man who can restore its faded glory, just as he turned Cincinnati into a national title contender.

He's leaving behind an undefeated and upset Cincinnati team that didn't seem prepared to lose him despite rampant speculation that the job was his.

"He went for the money," receiver Mardy Gilyard told The Associated Press after Kelly told players of his decision, nearly three hours after the news broke. "I'm fairly disgusted with the situation, that they let it last this long."

Only 10 days after Charlie Weis was fired, Notre Dame picked the Irish Catholic coach to revive a program coming off the worst decade in its storied history - a 70-52 record and three losing seasons. Kelly, who earned the Home Depot National Coach of the Year award on Thursday night, signed a five-year contract and will be introduced at news conference Friday afternoon in South Bend.

"I am very pleased that a thorough and extensive search has led us to a new head coach in Brian Kelly, who I am confident will help us accomplish our goal of competing for national championships," Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said in a news release.

Kelly officially takes over Monday, starting the job he has always wanted.

When Kelly's name was linked to Notre Dame's search last week, he told his players that he was happy in Cincinnati. A few days later, he said he would listen to Notre Dame's offer, but still sounded like he would be around to coach the No. 4 Bearcats (12-0) against Florida in their first Sugar Bowl appearance.

Instead Cincinnati athletics director Mike Thomas decided offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn - an assistant to Kelly for the last 22 years - will run the team on an interim basis.

The parting was painful.

The team held its annual football banquet at a downtown hotel on Thursday night. As players arrived for what was supposed to be a night of celebration, they were greeted by camera crews and reporters asking about Kelly's decision to leave Cincinnati for Notre Dame.

Three hours later, players were told to gather in a meeting room so Kelly could share the news that most already knew.

One minute into the meeting, the door opened and Gilyard walked out angry and alone, save his MVP trophy. His teammates soon followed, some with teary eyes. They had a difficult time accepting that Kelly was leaving one of the nation's top teams before its biggest bowl game.

"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."

Kelly's statements leading up to a title-clinching win over Pittsburgh last Saturday made it harder to accept.

"The Tuesday when we were practicing for Pittsburgh, he said he loves it here and he loves this team and loves coaching here and his family loves it here," quarterback Tony Pike said.

Notre Dame was one of the few jobs Kelly has always coveted. Guidugli said Kelly thanked the players for making the move possible by doing so well on the field.

The 47-year-old Kelly was 34-6 in three seasons at Cincinnati, leading the Bearcats to back-to-back Big East titles and two straight Bowl Championship Series berths. The Bearcats set a school record last season for victories with an 11-3 record, then topped that with a 12-0 mark this season. They finished third in the BCS rankings, barely missing out on the title game.

When Kelly arrived in Cincinnati three years ago, then-university president Nancy Zimpher told Kelly she expected him to turn the football program into a Top 25 mainstay, win a Big East title right away and make sure his players graduate. He'll face even higher expectations at Notre Dame.

He goes to South Bend with slightly less job security than previous coaches.

The last three Notre Dame coaches got six-year deals - Weis, Tyrone Willingham and George O'Leary. Weis signed a new 10-year deal midway through his first season, and O'Leary resigned five days after being hired following the 2001 season when it was revealed he didn't have the master's degree in education that he claimed. The last coach to get a five-year deal was Bob Davie when he took the job after the 1996 season.

No matter. Kelly has long admired Notre Dame, though turning the program around won't be easy. The Irish have a 16-21 record over the past three seasons. And he'll have to do it without two of Notre Dame's best players.

Quarterback Jimmy Clausen and his favorite receiver, Golden Tate, announced Monday they will bypass their senior seasons and enter the NFL draft.

Tate, speaking in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., after winning the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's best receiver, said he doesn't know a lot about Kelly.

"He seems to be a guy of high character. I'm excited for him. I think he's good for the Irish," Tate said.

Offensive lineman Christian Lombard, a high school senior from Palatine, Ill., who has committed to play for the Irish next season, said he was excited about the hire.

"I'm really optimistic. He's got a great track record so hopefully he's going to get things turned around," Lombard said. "From the time coach Weis got fired, he was the guy I wanted."

Kelly grew up in Chelsea, Mass., and went to Assumption College, a Catholic school in Worcester where he played linebacker while getting his degree in political science. The son of an alderman, he intended to go into politics after college and he even worked on Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign in the Boston area.

But football won out.

He learned how to be a head coach at Division II Grand Valley State in Michigan, where he won back-to-back national titles and 32 consecutive games over one stretch. He moved on to the Mid-American Conference and turned Central Michigan into a winning program in only three years.

Kelly was criticized in September 2004 for remarks he made to the Detroit Free Press about perjury charges filed against two former Central Michigan players after other CMU players were charged with second-degree murder in the fatal beating of a man.

"A number of them were African-Americans that had been in that culture of violence, and they're taught to look away," Kelly said. "You don't want anything to do with it. Get out of there. You don't say anything to anybody."

In 2006, when Mark Dantonio left Cincinnati for Michigan State, UC decided Kelly and his no-huddle, spread offense would bring a spark not just to the program but to the town, where college football ranked behind high school games in fan interest.

The Bearcats won 10 games his first season, set a school record with 11 wins and a Big East title the second and this season he had the high-scoring Bearcats (12-0) contending for a national title.

Gilyard said some players were angry Kelly is leaving just as the program had become nationally prominent.

"Just blindsided by the fact that it's a business," Gilyard said. "People lose sight of that. At the end of the day, NCAA football is a business. People have got to make business decisions."

This whole thing just pisses me off.
I really do hope he's the right fit for ND after all these years, but it seems this could've been handled better.

I said it before, and I'll say it again - schools talking with candidates before the last game has been played it total crap.
He should be coaching his team in the Sugar Bowl. Instead, he's let them all down.

I hope he has a better sense of loyalty at ND.

[symple19]

Makes it worse now that I've read the article. Pure, full-on furious. When will this shit end? The part about the players walking out really got me. How can you feel good about yourself as a man after you do something like that?

It took me 2 years to finally get over how Tuberville left Ole Miss for Auburn. He told Ole Miss that they would have to carry him out of there in a pine box. At least Auburn waited for the season to be over to go after him, but still...

Let's face it, this is how shit is, and it sucks

[kskonn]

I am glad that ND got Kelly but I agree this habit of coaches leaving right after the season really sucks. There are number of things that can change to help with this, in addition to the obvious of not letting teams talk to coaches until the bowl season is over they could also move the bowl games closer to the end of the regular season. I think the reason this happens is because teams and the new coaches are concerned about losing that month of time to hire staff, recruit etc.... but hey it is what it is now and it is not good.