Brian Kelly will always Brian Kelly
- Thread starter merlin08
- Start date
If Kelly did not get canned after the (4-8) 2016 season - do you think Swarbrick will fire him now?
Not a chance!
I know that this may come as a total shock to some people (and I'm REALLY going out on a limb here) but, baring an Act of God - ND will never win a NC Title under Kelly.
I'll go a step further and say that ND will never win a NC Title while Happy Jack Swarbrick is AD.
While I'm at it (might as well go all the way) - ND will never win a NC Title while Fr. Jenkins is President of The University of Notre Dame du Lac.
Yeah, well Patrick, it looks like it.
Consider the ancient Chinese proverb that says....
When a fish rots (smells), it rots (smells) from the head down (we in the west have our own somewhat more modernized version....'something smells fishy around here' ).
(i.e. When an organization fails, it is the leadership that is the root cause.)
Considering that Kelly, Swarbrick and Jenkins all seem to be at least reasonably content with the current state of the football program - do you think things will change?
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I understand your frustration. Losing to Miami wasn't as bad as how bad the Irish looked. You may be right. However, I've never bought into the thought that the aforementioned people are content with mediocrity (the current state of the program). If my understanding is correct, and it may not be, ND is about to spend a lot of money upgrading the facilities which will help recruiting. That along with what's been done with the stadium leads me to believe they are committed to making the Irish the premium brand it should be. Now as far as the entrance requirements and all, I don't know enough about it to comment one way or the other than to say I want to win, and I want to win bad. Having said that, I like the fact that ND graduates 96% of its players and is seen across the country as a high academic school. There has got to be a balance there somewhere. I hope we find it.
Wasn't the whole fan base reasonably content with the current state of the football program less than 48 hours ago?
I would say (IMHO) 'yes' - but your statement is referring to past tense.
Many fans seem to feel that ND was exposed (vs Miami) - and once again, Kelly cannot win the big games
And.......Life goes on with the Kelly-coached roller coaster - sometimes a pretender, never a true contender
How did we not get exposed against USC, NC State, Michigan State, all top 25 teams, or even Wake Forest who put up over 700 yds and 60 pts this past Saturday? It's not like we have lacked opportunities for exposure this year. Maybe Miami just played really well on a night where we just crapped the bed. Like Iowa v OSU, for example, or BC v FSU.
Stupid post. Notre Dame would hire a moron like Charlie Weis or one of the other bad picks. There are no better coaches. The Fleck lovers are beyond moronic. There are a few better and they're at big programs. Anyone else is a big gamble and frankly BK is the best ND has had in a while. Ill take competitive any day over the Weis era.
good point BUT..........for OSU (coached by Meyer) and FSU (coached by Fisher) - it is easier to see those losses as a rare 'one-off ' upset. Why? Simple - those coaches have won not only Big games but also National Championships.
And Kelly? His track record of winning big games over his ND career? He has been more apt to have his teams play down to the level of a lesser opponent than win a big game on the biggest of stages.
As the OP correctly stated....Kelly will always be Kelly !
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I think you might be making a point you didn't intend to make. If BK is the problem, and I'm not saying he's not, why would any hot-name coach out there be a better option? You just named 2 coaches who have won NC's. They account for half the number of active coaches who have won NC's. Let that sink in. Out of 129 FBS teams there are only 4 coaches who have won titles. Now think of all the coaches who were the flavor-of-the-month at one time and took over big programs - Kiffin, McElwain, Sumlin, Helfrich, Muschamp, etc. Those guys were thought to be the next big thing but they couldn't get it done. Heck, you can even add Harbaugh and Malzahn to a similar list. Those two have mostly done well but they haven't won a NC. Malzahn was even on the hot seat earlier this year.
Getting an NC caliber coach isn't easy. Say what you will about BK but the College Football Playoff has been in existence for 4 years and we've been in the playoff hunt twice now. Before that we actually went to the NC game. Not many coaches can say they've done what BK has done. I'm sure you can come up with a list of comparable coaches and maybe some of those have more appealing resumes, but the next thing you'd have to ask is, would they be able to do the same thing under the national spotlight that is Notre Dame with it's unique culture and challenges?
Point well taken - so do we just excuse Kelly for seemingly never being able to win a big game (save for the OU game in Norman 2012)?
My point (and I think the point of the OP and as far as Kelly is concerned) was not necessarily about winning a NC title - it was about winning big games on big stages. AND winning (top-10 maybe) year-in and year out on a consistent basis. ND has not exactly been a model of consistency under Kelly.
Kelly just can’t win that big game - from that title game [in 2012], the Fiesta Bowl [in 2015] vs Ohio State they were huge games that can keep ND on the road to where they need to be. Losing those games - and not even 'competing' in those games - that’s the issue.
Using Harbaugh as your example - so far he has not won a NC Championship (he may or may not in the future) but he was only at Stanford 4 years and his teams upset Pete Carroll 2x during Carroll's hey-day at USC while Carrol completely 'owned' ND. An example of 'showing up' on the big stage.
Kelly's ND teams have too often played down to the level of their opponent until this year then - as the OP had stated - Kelly will always be Kelly (ultimately his teams will revert back to his typical level of coaching where they under-perform, especially on the big stage... like this U. Miami game - again, not even competing).
ND (under Kelly) has to walk before it can run. Winning a major Bowl game (something Kelly's ND teams have yet to do) would be a first step in the right direction....can Kelly do it this year? Although I hope he can - I wouldn't bet more that a cup of coffee on it.
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Sorry for the delay. You ask a good question and it deserves a response. No, we don't excuse BK for not being able to win big games. Fans should demand he acknowledge and address the problem as well as the sports media. To that point, Eric Hansen wrote a good article the other day that addressed the problems in the Miami game and notes BK was specifically asked why his teams don't seem to be ready in big games. BK said this:
“We'll have to take a good, close look at that and making sure we prepare our guys,” Kelly conceded. “I've got to do a better job of making sure that they're in the moment.”
I'm sure you, as well as most ND fans, have noticed BK is usually frustratingly stubborn to properly address an existing problem. The two most obvious examples are poor special teams play and sticking with BVG as DC. But when he does finally acknowledge a problem, unlike many other coaches, he actually makes a concerted effort to try to fix the problem. Weis was never able to do that. Willingham never did it either. There are countless other coaches out there that have programs with major weaknesses and they never get fixed. BK actually reinvented himself after last year's debacle and I have to give him credit for that. That doesn't mean I'm totally confident he will properly address his big-game weakness - heck, I'm not totally confident we won't fall apart these last 3 games - but acknowledging the problem is a good first step and I think we fans need to continue to demand he do better.
Here's the article in case you'd like to see Hansen's analysis of what went wrong:
https://www.ndinsider.com/football/...cle_735a298e-c805-11e7-ad05-3f318056d301.html
