Its been interesting to sit on the sideline and watch the last 72hrs transpire. It's told us a lot of things about Notre Dame, LSU, Brian Kelly, and Marcus Freeman -- perhaps some we already knew, some we speculated and were right, and other parts where the curtain was pulled completely back. Here are my biggest takeaways from this weeks' shakeup:
- It says a lot when your head football coach leaves a team that is perhaps 72hrs away from a College Football Playoff invitation to take on a new challenge, and the entire coaching staff refuses to follow him -- or the money -- to that new destination. I cannot remember the last time I have ever seen this happen. Even in the best of circumstances where the poached university hires a solid replacement head coach, the past staff gets cherrypicked at a few key positions and remains loyal to their former boss by following them to the new school. Not here. Whether Brian Kelly abandoned the ND program at a moment when "abandonment" is a term reserved for those rare time-and-place situations of exceptional circumstance, his Notre Dame coaching staff more or less abandoned him. To me, this is one of the most unprecedented -- yet impressive -- storylines I have ever seen as not just a Notre Dame football fan but a die-hard follower of college football period. I'm not sure whether it says more about the mutual respect the staff has for ND and the current players, or the mutual lack of respect they have for Brian Kelly -- or at the very least Brian Kelly's departure protocol. Either way, the ND staff didn't like it and made a collective decision to distance themselves from that type of playcalling altogether. At the same time, they aligned themselves with the players very early on in this process and as one coach declared ND allegiance, the next seemed to follow in short order.
- Brian Kelly is a heck of a football coach and nothing that's happened in the last few days changes that. I've made it clear for several seasons that I liked Kelly as a coach but also felt he had a ceiling and that ceiling had been reached. I've also repeatedly said if Notre Dame brass are okay with that compromise, than I'm okay with it too because there may be an understanding at ND that instituting any changes might require some concessions the school does not want to make. Regardless, the way Kelly exited soured a lot of people. It's not about leaving for another school or taking the cash; no one can possibly disparage someone for locking in financial security. Kelly also gave 12 years to Notre Dame -- he did not owe Irish fans a 13th. He rebuilt the program from the doldrums and turned it into a consistent Top-10 program. We are all grateful for that (at least I hope so). The ways and means of his exit however feel like it was done without the spirit of Notre Dame at its core and when you lose that kernel of direction, you've lost ALL sense of direction. There's no doubt Kelly was launching feelers about other jobs before the end of the regular season, and sitting in a ND recruit's home telling them all about the virtues of Notre Dame and your desire to personally coach them into manhood while your handlers are back-dooring $100M deals with other employers is a deception that undercuts the current of what Notre Dame works so hard to separate themselves from. I get it. College football is a business and everyone is out to get their cut. Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and the Academies are not like everyone else however. Your word still counts for something. That Kelly was falsely selling ND and himself to Irish recruits when neither his heart nor his loyalty were invested into that sales job is a level of fraudulence that feels like a forged check getting bounced on the Irish bank account. Notre Dame deserved better and did not get it.
- Marcus Freeman obviously had an entire wave of support behind him from the other coaches, players, and ND underground. This says a lot about a guy that's been on campus for all of 11 months. Freeman obviously struck a chord with those around him, so much so that they all believed he was the most qualified person for the job. Of course, keeping the entire staff in place was paramount and had that not happened Freeman might not be the next coach -- there were strings and caveats to insulate Freeman as he learns to be the head man and we all get that. In some ways this was a packaged decision. Be that as it may however, its once again unusual to find such consensus in these things and yet that's where we once again found ourselves. Luke Fickel would have been another terrific hire, but Fickel would have brought along his own concessions and short/long-term hurdles. It's apparent that Freeman was considered the best option in both cases.
- Ownership. This might be the biggest headline from the last few days. The players and coaches spoke and acted in a manner that all but demanded that everything they have worked for over the last 4-6 seasons to build the Irish program into a contender was not something they were willing to hand over to an outsider so they could re-invent the wheel. The staff and players were adamant about finishing what they started -- this season and in subsequent seasons -- in the same manner they rebuilt Metropolis. The last thing they wanted was someone coming in and undoing all that sweat equity by rebranding it into something else and/or kicking dirt on those sacrifices. By retaining Freeman and the staff, the players will continue to own majority stock in this resurgence so they can build upon yesterday rather than bulldoze and start anew. I felt this feeling of ownership was as important to the players as anything. Its also the kind of thing that can be passed down to subsequent recruiting classes. This is our program, built our way, with our guys, and no departing coach is going to pull the rug from under our collective ownership in this journey.
- The man behind the suit. As I mentioned, Kelly is a terrific coach and wins everywhere he goes. He will win at LSU. Coed-loving Les Miles and Big Ed O' were anything but coaching Einsteins but were able to win national titles at LSU. If Kelly can recruit there -- and that remains to be seen -- he has a chance to add his name to that list and make his wish come true. But it's amazing how different these two men -- Kelly and Freeman -- embraced their flocks over the last couple of days. I'm not sure you could see to starker contrasts either. Kelly has always been somewhat contrived and clinical, hokey and insincere. To watch him stand in front of 10,000 LSU fans and placate to Louisianans with a perfunctory, forged bayou accent was in my estimation the final confirmation to Jack Swarbrick's peace of mind rather than the first attempt at a fabricated but strong impression on Geaux Tiger Nation. It was a moment that encapsulated the last 72 hours perfectly and reassured Notre Dame, Swarbrick, the players, and the subway alums that not only is Marcus Freeman the best man for the job, Marcus Freeman is the better man for the job.
All the evidence we need is the support Freeman had before the announcement and the love he received inside that locker room when introduced for the first time to the players. While Kelly's introduction was indeed full of entirely different circumstances that we all recognize, there are the two indelible images that are going to resonate with me more than all others over the long, cold winter. In one case you have a Bostonian putting on a Cajun schtick, in the other a man simply trying to be himself. In one room there were skeptics, in the other there were true believers. One room was cold and empty, the other room lit up like a fire.
Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman will be judged on wins and losses. Both men are calculated risks but in different ways. From my chair on the sideline however, it's not too early to make one genuine observation: Marcus Freeman is more of a Notre Dame man on day one than Brian Kelly was in 12 seasons. That's not me talking: that's the Notre Dame stadium locker room talking. Brian Kelly never had that kind of unconditional love and support. Past teams played hard for Notre Dame, but future teams will also play hard for Marcus Freeman. Not because they have to, but because they want to. He's relatable, personable, passionate, and.....most of all.....more Irish than the Irish Catholic he used to work for. It's not everything but it's a good start. It's now up to Freeman to do the rest.
- It says a lot when your head football coach leaves a team that is perhaps 72hrs away from a College Football Playoff invitation to take on a new challenge, and the entire coaching staff refuses to follow him -- or the money -- to that new destination. I cannot remember the last time I have ever seen this happen. Even in the best of circumstances where the poached university hires a solid replacement head coach, the past staff gets cherrypicked at a few key positions and remains loyal to their former boss by following them to the new school. Not here. Whether Brian Kelly abandoned the ND program at a moment when "abandonment" is a term reserved for those rare time-and-place situations of exceptional circumstance, his Notre Dame coaching staff more or less abandoned him. To me, this is one of the most unprecedented -- yet impressive -- storylines I have ever seen as not just a Notre Dame football fan but a die-hard follower of college football period. I'm not sure whether it says more about the mutual respect the staff has for ND and the current players, or the mutual lack of respect they have for Brian Kelly -- or at the very least Brian Kelly's departure protocol. Either way, the ND staff didn't like it and made a collective decision to distance themselves from that type of playcalling altogether. At the same time, they aligned themselves with the players very early on in this process and as one coach declared ND allegiance, the next seemed to follow in short order.
- Brian Kelly is a heck of a football coach and nothing that's happened in the last few days changes that. I've made it clear for several seasons that I liked Kelly as a coach but also felt he had a ceiling and that ceiling had been reached. I've also repeatedly said if Notre Dame brass are okay with that compromise, than I'm okay with it too because there may be an understanding at ND that instituting any changes might require some concessions the school does not want to make. Regardless, the way Kelly exited soured a lot of people. It's not about leaving for another school or taking the cash; no one can possibly disparage someone for locking in financial security. Kelly also gave 12 years to Notre Dame -- he did not owe Irish fans a 13th. He rebuilt the program from the doldrums and turned it into a consistent Top-10 program. We are all grateful for that (at least I hope so). The ways and means of his exit however feel like it was done without the spirit of Notre Dame at its core and when you lose that kernel of direction, you've lost ALL sense of direction. There's no doubt Kelly was launching feelers about other jobs before the end of the regular season, and sitting in a ND recruit's home telling them all about the virtues of Notre Dame and your desire to personally coach them into manhood while your handlers are back-dooring $100M deals with other employers is a deception that undercuts the current of what Notre Dame works so hard to separate themselves from. I get it. College football is a business and everyone is out to get their cut. Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and the Academies are not like everyone else however. Your word still counts for something. That Kelly was falsely selling ND and himself to Irish recruits when neither his heart nor his loyalty were invested into that sales job is a level of fraudulence that feels like a forged check getting bounced on the Irish bank account. Notre Dame deserved better and did not get it.
- Marcus Freeman obviously had an entire wave of support behind him from the other coaches, players, and ND underground. This says a lot about a guy that's been on campus for all of 11 months. Freeman obviously struck a chord with those around him, so much so that they all believed he was the most qualified person for the job. Of course, keeping the entire staff in place was paramount and had that not happened Freeman might not be the next coach -- there were strings and caveats to insulate Freeman as he learns to be the head man and we all get that. In some ways this was a packaged decision. Be that as it may however, its once again unusual to find such consensus in these things and yet that's where we once again found ourselves. Luke Fickel would have been another terrific hire, but Fickel would have brought along his own concessions and short/long-term hurdles. It's apparent that Freeman was considered the best option in both cases.
- Ownership. This might be the biggest headline from the last few days. The players and coaches spoke and acted in a manner that all but demanded that everything they have worked for over the last 4-6 seasons to build the Irish program into a contender was not something they were willing to hand over to an outsider so they could re-invent the wheel. The staff and players were adamant about finishing what they started -- this season and in subsequent seasons -- in the same manner they rebuilt Metropolis. The last thing they wanted was someone coming in and undoing all that sweat equity by rebranding it into something else and/or kicking dirt on those sacrifices. By retaining Freeman and the staff, the players will continue to own majority stock in this resurgence so they can build upon yesterday rather than bulldoze and start anew. I felt this feeling of ownership was as important to the players as anything. Its also the kind of thing that can be passed down to subsequent recruiting classes. This is our program, built our way, with our guys, and no departing coach is going to pull the rug from under our collective ownership in this journey.
- The man behind the suit. As I mentioned, Kelly is a terrific coach and wins everywhere he goes. He will win at LSU. Coed-loving Les Miles and Big Ed O' were anything but coaching Einsteins but were able to win national titles at LSU. If Kelly can recruit there -- and that remains to be seen -- he has a chance to add his name to that list and make his wish come true. But it's amazing how different these two men -- Kelly and Freeman -- embraced their flocks over the last couple of days. I'm not sure you could see to starker contrasts either. Kelly has always been somewhat contrived and clinical, hokey and insincere. To watch him stand in front of 10,000 LSU fans and placate to Louisianans with a perfunctory, forged bayou accent was in my estimation the final confirmation to Jack Swarbrick's peace of mind rather than the first attempt at a fabricated but strong impression on Geaux Tiger Nation. It was a moment that encapsulated the last 72 hours perfectly and reassured Notre Dame, Swarbrick, the players, and the subway alums that not only is Marcus Freeman the best man for the job, Marcus Freeman is the better man for the job.
All the evidence we need is the support Freeman had before the announcement and the love he received inside that locker room when introduced for the first time to the players. While Kelly's introduction was indeed full of entirely different circumstances that we all recognize, there are the two indelible images that are going to resonate with me more than all others over the long, cold winter. In one case you have a Bostonian putting on a Cajun schtick, in the other a man simply trying to be himself. In one room there were skeptics, in the other there were true believers. One room was cold and empty, the other room lit up like a fire.
Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman will be judged on wins and losses. Both men are calculated risks but in different ways. From my chair on the sideline however, it's not too early to make one genuine observation: Marcus Freeman is more of a Notre Dame man on day one than Brian Kelly was in 12 seasons. That's not me talking: that's the Notre Dame stadium locker room talking. Brian Kelly never had that kind of unconditional love and support. Past teams played hard for Notre Dame, but future teams will also play hard for Marcus Freeman. Not because they have to, but because they want to. He's relatable, personable, passionate, and.....most of all.....more Irish than the Irish Catholic he used to work for. It's not everything but it's a good start. It's now up to Freeman to do the rest.
