This is an excerpt from my 1-on-1 interview with Coach Kelly this summer for our 160-page full glossy 2018 Football Preview, which you can still order:
“I’ve been public with Jack (Swarbrick). I’m not in favor of it. I’d rather end the season here, but if we’re going to continue those traditional rivalries, the Pac-12 is giving us only that slot. If we’re going to continue to play USC, we’re going to have to play them on the road at the end of the year every other year, and Stanford. The Pac-12 won’t change it. These are slots, no other. The ultimate push-back is schedule someone else. Now you have a whole different argument here that is above my pay grade. Do you not play USC every year? Do you not play Stanford every year? I’m not crazy about going out to the west coast at the end of the year. But I’ve got to overcome that if we’re going to continue to do what we’re doing.”
"Jack knows it. Going to New York and then going to L.A. is not the easiest way to run the table. Most of the teams in the SEC are playing a 1-AA, a team that is getting paid to come into their stadium before the last game of the year for a reason.”
“The reason behind [the Syracuse move] is they wanted a Shamrock Series game contractually. NBC wants a piece of it, there’s other callings that are outside the head football coach’s domain. We’ve got other people we have to look at in the equation.
“If we were to bring it back here, which I wanted, we would have had an outcry from our season ticket holders because last year we told them after the increase in season ticket prices that there would be a freeze on it for the next year. But if we were to bring that game back here, we would have had to add that ticket price. There are a lot of moving pieces here that a head football coach is going to be involved in the conversation, but at the end of the day you’ve got to line them up and I have to figure out how to play them, and then really do a good jb in November.
“My task was here’s what your schedule is, here’s what we’re doing, go figure out how to be rested how to be rested in November, and that’s what I’m working on.”
“I’ve been public with Jack (Swarbrick). I’m not in favor of it. I’d rather end the season here, but if we’re going to continue those traditional rivalries, the Pac-12 is giving us only that slot. If we’re going to continue to play USC, we’re going to have to play them on the road at the end of the year every other year, and Stanford. The Pac-12 won’t change it. These are slots, no other. The ultimate push-back is schedule someone else. Now you have a whole different argument here that is above my pay grade. Do you not play USC every year? Do you not play Stanford every year? I’m not crazy about going out to the west coast at the end of the year. But I’ve got to overcome that if we’re going to continue to do what we’re doing.”
"Jack knows it. Going to New York and then going to L.A. is not the easiest way to run the table. Most of the teams in the SEC are playing a 1-AA, a team that is getting paid to come into their stadium before the last game of the year for a reason.”
“The reason behind [the Syracuse move] is they wanted a Shamrock Series game contractually. NBC wants a piece of it, there’s other callings that are outside the head football coach’s domain. We’ve got other people we have to look at in the equation.
“If we were to bring it back here, which I wanted, we would have had an outcry from our season ticket holders because last year we told them after the increase in season ticket prices that there would be a freeze on it for the next year. But if we were to bring that game back here, we would have had to add that ticket price. There are a lot of moving pieces here that a head football coach is going to be involved in the conversation, but at the end of the day you’ve got to line them up and I have to figure out how to play them, and then really do a good jb in November.
“My task was here’s what your schedule is, here’s what we’re doing, go figure out how to be rested how to be rested in November, and that’s what I’m working on.”
