Alright, so like many on this board I've stated my case the past few weeks on why Brian Kelly doesn't have the equity to return if we have a losing season.
I also think it's fair to take a look at why he should return, why he was a good hire, what went wrong and how to fix it.
Before I get ripped for it, yes, I am absolutely on both sides of the fence on Brian Kelly. There are cases to be made both for and against, and I see both sides, and agree with both sides.
First of all, Brian Kelly WAS NOT a bad hire. He was coming off an undefeated season at Cincy. To take that a step farther he had won 10+ games at Cincy in all 3 of his season there. To put that in perspective, Mark Dantonio before him and Butch Jones after had 1 10 win season COMBINED over 6 total seasons.
While his tenure here hasn't been as consistently successful as we hoped, he has taken the program to heights we haven't seen since Holtz. An undefeated regular season in 2012 and a National Title appearance and going into the final game of 2015 still in the playoff hunt. From what I can find there are only 2 coaches in America that have guided 2 Division 1 programs to undefeated regular seasons, Urban Meyer and Brian Kelly.
So what went wrong? How does a coach with his resume have 5 losses in 4/7 seasons? My opinion is he became too much of a CEO coach. I personally believe he got so caught up in what the NFL was looking for that he completely lost track of what got him here. I also believe he overreacted to the Alabama game and went completely too far against what had been built with the BVG hire. The truth is no defensive coordinator in America was going to slow down the Tide that night. They played about as flawless of football game as I have ever seen.
How does he fix it? Look, I'm not a football coach, there are people much more quality on this forum to answer this question than I am, but I'm going to give my opinion as to what I believe. I believe Brian Kelly needs to look back at what got him to Notre Dame. You don't change what made you successful for 20 years as a head coach because you landed a bigger job. Yes, adjustments need to be made but the basic foundation of what got you here remains the same. I believe he needs to find a DC that believes in a fundamentally sound defense. I don't care about 3-4 vs 4-3 or bend but don't break vs press man. What I do care about is having a defense that tackles well, knows their assignments and plays fast, physical football. You can win a lot of football games doing those 3 things.
On offense, I know this isn't going to be popular, but I believe he needs to make the change to Jeff Quinn as his OC. Quinn was his OC during Kelly's ENTIRE tenure as a head coach before Notre Dame. Those 2 ran one of the best offenses in the country for 20 years, it's time for Kelly to get back to that.
I also think it's fair to take a look at why he should return, why he was a good hire, what went wrong and how to fix it.
Before I get ripped for it, yes, I am absolutely on both sides of the fence on Brian Kelly. There are cases to be made both for and against, and I see both sides, and agree with both sides.
First of all, Brian Kelly WAS NOT a bad hire. He was coming off an undefeated season at Cincy. To take that a step farther he had won 10+ games at Cincy in all 3 of his season there. To put that in perspective, Mark Dantonio before him and Butch Jones after had 1 10 win season COMBINED over 6 total seasons.
While his tenure here hasn't been as consistently successful as we hoped, he has taken the program to heights we haven't seen since Holtz. An undefeated regular season in 2012 and a National Title appearance and going into the final game of 2015 still in the playoff hunt. From what I can find there are only 2 coaches in America that have guided 2 Division 1 programs to undefeated regular seasons, Urban Meyer and Brian Kelly.
So what went wrong? How does a coach with his resume have 5 losses in 4/7 seasons? My opinion is he became too much of a CEO coach. I personally believe he got so caught up in what the NFL was looking for that he completely lost track of what got him here. I also believe he overreacted to the Alabama game and went completely too far against what had been built with the BVG hire. The truth is no defensive coordinator in America was going to slow down the Tide that night. They played about as flawless of football game as I have ever seen.
How does he fix it? Look, I'm not a football coach, there are people much more quality on this forum to answer this question than I am, but I'm going to give my opinion as to what I believe. I believe Brian Kelly needs to look back at what got him to Notre Dame. You don't change what made you successful for 20 years as a head coach because you landed a bigger job. Yes, adjustments need to be made but the basic foundation of what got you here remains the same. I believe he needs to find a DC that believes in a fundamentally sound defense. I don't care about 3-4 vs 4-3 or bend but don't break vs press man. What I do care about is having a defense that tackles well, knows their assignments and plays fast, physical football. You can win a lot of football games doing those 3 things.
On offense, I know this isn't going to be popular, but I believe he needs to make the change to Jeff Quinn as his OC. Quinn was his OC during Kelly's ENTIRE tenure as a head coach before Notre Dame. Those 2 ran one of the best offenses in the country for 20 years, it's time for Kelly to get back to that.
