When Weis took over Willingham left the cupboards bare. Weis while not a good coach did bring in a lot of talent. The team that Kelly took a lot of Weis team to the NC. He's had ten years to bring in talent and at the end of this season just had a revelation they need to recruit better. Kelly is a good coach and had brought this to a certain level. But like Book I think he's hit his ceiling.
This is the $64 question regarding Kelly. Did the light just go on in his head about recruiting the best? Particularly when in an interview earlier this year, he stated UNEQUIVOCALLY that ND -- circumstances being what they are -- just can't get as many good players as Bama and Clemson.
When he took the job at ND, one would assume Kelly knew what he was getting into: ND's admissions/academic standards; no consistent success since Holtz's "Wild West" recruiting; the ups and downs in recruiting that had followed Holtz; and the up and down seasons that tracked the up and down recruiting.
This all should have been apparent to him.
If so, did Kelly actually think that he could win an NC simply on the basis of his seldom-run-it, watered down spread, his ability to "manufacture offense" (remember that term?) and his success up till then as a coach?
Did he think that it didn't matter that Carroll and Stoops had been stockpiling talent for years and that Saban was doing the same? And that success in big-time CFB wasn't predicated on the ND notion of student-athletes or on how many football players a school actually graduates?
Did he simply not realize all of this or did he think that it simply didn't matter. That ND could somehow win it all with 3-stars and a sprinkling of 4's as long as it ran HIS OFFENSE -- the way he'd designed it.
My sense is that, while aware of these factors, he didn't understand fully the enormity of the challenge. Plus, he was OVER-CONFIDENT that he, Brian Kelly, could turn it around at ND. The right job. The right man. Other considerations notwithstanding.
If so, it's possible that a) it's been a grueling learning curve for Kelly; b) he's now a better coach; c) he's getting better players; maybe the university has relaxed things a bit -- I wouldn't know, but Kelly's more recent players ARE BETTER -- and d) he's finally realized that, without the best players,
it's not gonna happen.
If this is the case, the bad news is that it took him so long to realize THE OBVIOUS -- was it inattention, hubris, a learning disability? -- while the good news is that he's finally done it.
Now, let's see if ND gives him the necessary latitude to recruit 1 through 5 classes. Will they bend now that he's stated publicly that's what he needs, or just say thanks, pat him on the back and give him his extension?
