Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Especially when that opinion is backed up with facts. However, when your opinion is constantly proven wrong, it’s time to man up admit when your wrong and move on.
After the 4-9 season I jumped head first off the Kelly wagon. I wanted him OUT!
The number one reason? “ he cannot win the big game”.
However, When he went 12-0 again, I immediately admitted I was 100% wrong about Coach Kelly. After beating #7 Stanford week 5 of the 12-0 season, I just began to sit back and enjoy where Kelly and his staff has brought this program.
I could not be happier as an ND fan. Yes, we all want a championship but come on, how many teams have actually won a championship the past 10 seasons? 4 maybe?
I've said it a million times.
Championships might be what some people expect but not me.
I just simply want the team to compete with the very best in the country. If we can do that we have a chance.
Where we're at now in those elite games with high stakes we are close but not really. FSU in 14 was about it. That was Brian Kelly's finest hour IMO as a coach.
Since then we've been close...kind of...but not really.
Clemson in 15. We were close but we were clinging to desperation to tie it up.
Georgia in 17. It was a two point game but our offense was in typical BK fashion and anemic.
Georgia in 19. Sure we were within a score. Honestly we were very fortunate to be in that position. If Kirby goes for a few 4th and very short situations they run away with the game. (I've said before Kirby is the closest thing to Brian Kelly coaching another big time program) Even though it was within a score we needed a miracle to happen and it didn't.
When we look into the major bowl games when there's 5 weeks to prepare is really when the wheels fall off. Why is that? Think about that for a little bit. Regular season big matchups (minus Ann Arbor and Miami..more on that in a minute) we are fairly close. Sort of.
5 weeks to prepare for a major bowl which also means a major opponent....neutral setting...we get promptly blown out.
12 Bama
15 OSU
18 Clemson
All three opponents hammered us. I can take losing to all three but the way we lose is pathetic. We play scared, unprepared, tentative, disinterested. We play like we're lucky to be there while the opponent acts like they damn well deserve to be there and want to beat us by 75 points....by halftime. We look like we just happy to get some new t shirts and bowl game promo material. Go sightseeing in a new city or enjoy some famous eateries.
What are we doing with the extra 15 practices? Game planning? Nope. If we are it's a terrible plan.
Getting motivated? We don't play very excited.
Putting some new plays in trying to get an edge?
Absolutely not. It's literally the same identical plays we just ran 12 games prior. Same EXACT ones and some of which don't work against any opponent. The east west run play comes to mind. We broadcast this play and I know exactly when it's coming. Any decent team that watches even a few minutes of film knows exactly how to key on that play. Yet we insist on running that play. So in those 15 practices we get better at running stuff we could already run blindfolded and some that doesn't work at all. That's how we use the extra 15 practices. COME ON!
If we were actually close in those games I along with most of the board would be elated. We would have a chance to take advantage of a bad call or an untimely turnover, etc. It would mean we actually have a damn legit chance and it's only a matter of time before we catch a break.
Sadly we are a million miles from being close to that.
The QB position is one that can actually balance things out. Needing a spark, or carried to victory...the QB can make more of a difference than any other position.
BK and the QB position is a quagmire. They regress or remain stagnant. The wrong player gets the start. The plays being called and design of the plays are that of playing afraid to fail. If you play scared of failure you definitely won't succeed. Sure you can beat teams less talented playing that way but you won't eke out a victory against a great team playing timid and tentative. That's true in life itself. Look at businesses that reach the pinnacle of their industry. The high achievers are risk takers. Certainly early on they take a risk and failure can happen but they get up trying a different approach. A new approach yet still in risky fashion because to achieve the mountain top you take a high risk to enjoy the high reward.
The Michigan game this year....
All week leading to that game everybody knew of the weather in Ann Arbor Saturday night.
Yet Brian Kelly when asked how many wet weather practice sessions he got in his response was,,,,we didn't.
How the HELL can that be? He's the head coach of ND! How can he ignore inclement weather like that assuming our team is impervious to such conditions. Wet weather can affect even the greatest of teams yet he just chooses to ignore it.
The 7 false starts in Georgia? One? Ok. Two? Not ideal. 3rd time? Something is going on!! Let's get a timeout addressing all 11 players on offense including the rotational subs on what we're doing with the cadence. Instead he literally ignores this. He knows it's a problem but just stands there with that disgusted look doing nothing. Perhaps he's thinking of a good answer for the upcoming presser? Either way it's wrong twice over. Wrong that we're not collectively on the same page to begin with and the lack of fixing the problem is the second wrong.
The AA game and Miami...how do we literally show up to those games flatter than a sheet of glass.
Good teams love those challenges. Nothing feels better than going into a hostile environment and making eighty or one hundred thousand fans leave heartbroken. Going into a North Carolina and winning is nice but you know those moments I speak of.
Showing up disinterested and completley lackadaisical in a game of such magnitude is pathetic and unacceptable. Even more so given Ann Arbor was coming off a bye week.
I say again...this is the head coach of ND and there are far too many self destructing issues in lieu of the athlete ability.
