General team info

[tko]

Just getting a quick tour of his next job

Or scoping up a few coaches to pillage like Urban did a few years back.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

Or scoping up a few coaches to pillage like Urban did a few years back.

He's already started the process with Cooks..

 

[Irish Insanity]

Just getting a quick tour of his next job

Yes please

 

[ulukinatme]

Just getting a quick tour of his next job

Yes please

Do people really want "Big Game" Bob? He lost to Texas last year, and got destroyed by Clemson.

 

[NCND]

Do people really want "Big Game" Bob? He lost to Texas last year, and got destroyed by Clemson.

Beat Baylor and Destroyed OSU to Clinch CFP birth. Who did BK beat this year?

 

[Irish Insanity]

Do people really want "Big Game" Bob? He lost to Texas last year, and got destroyed by Clemson.

He's been at Oklahoma since 1999.
17 seasons of football.
13 seasons of 10+ wins.
11 seasons of 11+ wins.
Success we haven't seen in a long time.

 

[kmoose]

Beat Baylor and Destroyed OSU to Clinch CFP birth. Who did BK beat this year?

Texas
Virginia
Georgia Tech
Massachusetts
Navy
Southern California
Temple
Pittsburgh
Wake Forest
Boston College


The results are all over the internet. I'm surprised that you had to ask.

 

[NCND]

Texas
Virginia
Georgia Tech
Massachusetts
Navy
Southern California
Temple
Pittsburgh
Wake Forest
Boston College


The results are all over the internet. I'm surprised that you had to ask.

Thanks.

 

[Classic Irish]

Not to mention absolutely atrocious graduation rates at Oklahoma. I realize that I'm probably in the minority, but that matters to me.

 

[NDinL.A.]

That department is the worst. It's either a 30 second spring football practice update videos or our guys playing with tires. I remember jack Nolan use to have five minute videos and it was actually something to look forward too. That department needs to step there game up.

It's not them bro. There are some really talented people over there, but they do what is dictated to them. If the football office doesn't want a lot out there, then we won't see a lot out there. If they extend the leash, you'll see more footage.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Not to mention absolutely atrocious graduation rates at Oklahoma. I realize that I'm probably in the minority, but that matters to me.

That and the whole Joe Mixon and DGB thing...allowing those guys to be on the team would probably cost him the opportunity to even get an interview.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

For one, I can't think of a more successful coach than BK that has his scruples, let alone that I would want replacing him at this time.

What everyone is leaving out of this conversation is the fact that ND football was arguably in the worst shape it's been since the Irish won their first natty.

He did a masterful job rebuilding it. None of these other coaches, except maybe Sabin inherited less than a well oiled machine.

 

[ulukinatme]

Beat Baylor and Destroyed OSU to Clinch CFP birth. Who did BK beat this year?

He's been at Oklahoma since 1999.
17 seasons of football.
13 seasons of 10+ wins.
11 seasons of 11+ wins.
Success we haven't seen in a long time.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Big 12, but it's a conference of awful defense. It's a lot of high powered offense and Oklahoma is one of the few that actually play decent defense at times which is why they're successful. A lot of the "good" Big 12 teams weren't even that good until the last 5 years or so, it's no wonder Bob has been successful in his career. Tell me BK couldn't pull out 10 wins at Oklahoma when you're facing 1-2 decent teams in your conference each year and a couple cupcake ooc games. Given the lack of restrictions in academics, the weak conference, and the recruiting draw Oklahoma has it's not magic that the Sooners have been successful. I'm not sure why we'd want a guy that has been 1-2 against Texas the last 3 years despite their turmoil, and frequently gets out-coached by lesser teams. If you put Bob at Notre Dame for the 2015 season, I'd bet he doesn't come away with 10 wins given the injuries.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Big 12, but it's a conference of awful defense. It's a lot of high powered offense and Oklahoma is one of the few that actually play decent defense at times which is why they're successful. A lot of the "good" Big 12 teams weren't even that good until the last 5 years or so, it's no wonder Bob has been successful in his career. Tell me BK couldn't pull out 10 wins at Oklahoma when you're facing 1-2 decent teams in your conference each year and a couple cupcake ooc games. Given the lack of restrictions in academics, the weak conference, and the recruiting draw Oklahoma has it's not magic that the Sooners have been successful. I'm not sure why we'd want a guy that has been 1-2 against Texas the last 3 years despite their turmoil, and frequently gets out-coached by lesser teams. If you put Bob at Notre Dame for the 2015 season, I'd bet he doesn't come away with 10 wins given the injuries.

I agree with most of what you are saying. But, do you remember what Oklahoma was like before Bob Stoops got there? Oklahoma was literally irrelevant. They were not competitive in the crappy big 8/big 12. That is really bad considering at that time the only good teams were Nebraska and Colorado. Texas and TAMU were not very good at that point in time. Stoops walked into a worse situation than Kelly dos at Notre Dame.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ulukinatme]

I agree, Oklahoma hit a low point before Stoops, but they arguably had less restrictions to rebuild with. BK certainly didn't have any troubles succeeding at his previous stops, he built those places up. I see no reason why he couldn't have done the same at Oklahoma. He's certainly done more at ND than anyone since Lou has done.

As far as the Big 12, Nebraska certainly has fallen off since the arrival of Stoops, and they're not even in the conference anymore. Colorado is gone and they went downhill after the 90s. A&M was always up and down. Texas had some streaks but definitely struggled for a long period. I can see why a new coach could shake things up and succeed in the Big 12 during the point when Stoops arrived. I'm not saying he's a horrible coach or anything, he's successful, but I'm questioning why people want BK ousted for Stoops. I don't see an upgrade.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Good article by Eric Hansen at The Trib; I'll quote here :

Brady Quinn, a former first-round draft choice out of Notre Dame back in 2007 and a current NFL and college football analyst for FOX, sees a similar big picture.

But both Quinn and Lugg know the player development story that’s evolving at Notre Dame under seventh-year Irish head coach Brian Kelly is oversimplified by zeroing in on only this year’s large combine contingent.

To wit, ND sent one player to the combine last year and had just that one player drafted, seventh-rounder Ben Koyack. Next season the Irish figure to have only 10 players total with expiring eligibility on a freshman/sophomore-heavy roster, not all of whom project as next-level players.

And the last time the Irish garnered this many combine invites (10 in 2002), Notre Dame was roughly three months removed from deposing its head coach, Bob Davie, with four years remaining on his contract.

The Irish had sent six to the combine the previous year and eight each of the two years following the 2002 mob, all Davie-recruited players. Nine months after that second group of eight went through the 2004 combine, ND fired Davie’s successor, Tyrone Willingham.

“Brian Kelly’s player development skills and those of his staff are real,” Quinn said in a phone interview Tuesday. “And there are several layers to it. It’s not just about the NFL Draft. He ends up bringing about basically a more complete player from start to finish, as these guys go on into the NFL."

“So he wins big games along the way.”

It starts with consistent high-level of recruiting, Quinn said. But that goes hand in hand with building a culture, in which not-only the elite-level recruits, such as Quinn himself and Lugg, would succeed, but there are plenty of success stories with prospects who didn’t garner as many offers, attention or recruiting stars.

The best two examples in this particular draft class are center Nick Martin, a former three-star prospect who may go as high as the second round in the April 28-30 NFL Draft, and running back C.J. Prosise, another three-star recruit who changed positions twice at ND and is certain to be drafted, though his projected round isn’t as defined yet at this stage of the process as Martin’s is.

“He’s got a program and a system,” Quinn said of Kelly. “He knows how to run it and has been successful running it throughout his career. And the best example of seeing how well that comes together is looking at this past season.

“You had players go down, and you saw a good job of players coming in and filling those voids. It goes to show you they’re being coached well and taught well. It’s not just about talent. It has to do with coaching, and their ability to develop these guys.”

The sometimes overlooked piece in the NFL part of the player development picture was Kelly's first begrudging, then gradual ability to embrace it, sell it, marry it to everything Notre Dame stands for.

Just as any coach coming in will do, he spent much of his first year in 2010 defining the differences between predecessor Charlie Weis and himself.

Weis flashed his Super Bowl rings during recruiting visits, flaunted his still-active NFL connections to the biggest names in coaching at that level and encouraged his players to be open about their next-level aspirations.

What Kelly has achieved, perceptually at least, is balance, but it started out as almost aversion.

“I don't know that we go around and pound our chests about that,” Kelly said of his NFL-connection numbers, about which he actually has plenty to crow.

From 2000-11, Notre Dame produced a grand total of two first-rounders, Quinn in 2007 and center Jeff Faine in 2003. If offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley and linebacker Jaylon Smith go in the first round two months from now, as expected, Kelly will have coaxed six first-rounders in the last five draft cycles.

And if that pair he recruited both go in the top 15 picks overall, that will be the first time for Notre Dame teammates since Rick Mirer (2) and Jerome Bettis (10) in 1993.

“If, for example, one school wants to say Notre Dame can't do that or doesn't do it, we can have a really, really good conversation about how we have done that,” Kelly said. “We'd prefer not to.''

“We think we've got other things that are higher on the list, but when we do get to that, we will highlight the guys that have developed and succeeded in the NFL and developed in this program in particular over the last six years.”

Kelly still likes to characterize the recruits who chose Notre Dame as shopping down a different aisle. But he now realizes the NFL opportunity has to be one of the staples they find in that aisle.

And he’s come to peace with the notion that early entries are part of successful programs.

In the decade leading up to Kelly being named as Notre Dame’s head coach in December of 2009, Notre Dame had a total of five early entries — true juniors, or seniors who turned away a fifth-year option,

In the last three draft cycles, he’s had 10 if you count cornerback KeiVarae Russell. The NFL doesn’t count him as one, because Russell would have had to petition the NCAA for eligibility in 2016 because of an academic-related suspension in 2014.

But with Russell, the Irish have 12 early entries during Kelly’s time as ND’s coach. Only seven schools have more during that time frame — LSU (28), Alabama (18), Florida (17), USC (16), Florida State (15), Clemson (15) and Stanford (13).

“One of the things you have to do now (in building your next recruiting class) is you've got to look at and anticipate any juniors that may leave,” Kelly said. “I think that's the reality today.”

If Lugg is any indication, the reality is recruits aren’t receiving mixed messages that a high academic profile and NFL development are mutually exclusive, but rather that they’re concepts that knit together.

The complete article is here :
This is of course an article from the point of view of the class of 2017, 78th ranked player overall, tackle Josh Lugg.

Josh goes on to say :

“I know with my future position coach, Harry Hiestand, he gets his players ready, whether it’s for their careers outside of football after Notre Dame or moving onto the pros,” Lugg said. “I know the other ND coaches do the same.

“The NFL is a dream for everybody since you’re little, but with Notre Dame we know if something happens where we can’t go pro, we have something to set us up for what comes after football and that we’ll be OK.”

The complete article can be found here :

No mixed messages in Notre Dame's resurgent NFL connection - Notre Dame Insider: Notre Dame Football

I posted so much and highlighted a lot because it speaks to a couple things :
The game has changes substantially since Lou was head coach;
The attitudes, motivation, and desires of prospective players has changed even more!

Not only did Notre Dame go through the longest period of digression, three inconsistent coaches, two with five years at the helm, that at any other time in its history, the game totally changed in that time.

To his credit, that is one thing Charlie Weis saw. Which probably resulted in his offensive success. But he still left Brian Kelly in a deeper hole, particularly on defense, than Willingham left him (Weis).

Ironically, from that same standard, Kelly didn't score as high of marks, (catering to the kids with flash and sizzle.) And it may have cost him in the short run. I believe that is the nexus of contention with many of those unhappy with Kelly's tenure, eg., the recruit criminals crowd, or the lower the standards gang. (Bang, bang!)

And, finally, in addition to the 'culture of toughness and winning' that ND hasn't had since Lou was coach, the text highlighted in red is a fundamental reason of how Kelly has brought Notre Dame most of the way back to the Holtz level of achievement, in this changed world of college football

This is particularly noteworthy for those that bitch and wine about recruiting classes year after year. And particularly germane to those who expressed disappointment, suicidal thoughts, and rage this year. Everybody wants the players that have forty offers, including the big boys. But how many players are out there like Troy Pride, Jr., that have the offers and are rated inexplicably low? And what is ND's closing rate on them?

Because who here would want ND to have skipped on Nick Martin, CJ Prosise, or Corey Robinson, and Mathias Farley, for that matter? This class, 2016 is full of Troy Prides; there are three four stars that should be five stars including two recruits that are in the top 20 for the class! All the way down, this is a class long on underrated four stars, and three stars that came to the scene late, and may really develop. And look how the last three classes fit together! The proof is in the ability of the staff to patch things up through the concept of next man in, when dealing with catastrophic numbers of injuries.

This is a part of why I said earlier I wouldn't give Kelly up for any other coach out there.

 

[Legacy]

Thanks, Bogs, and well said. I always appreciate your contributions.

 

[koonja]

Loy -

Southern University special teams coordinator Marty Biagi is coming to ND as a special team's analyst.

Cool, but I wish we'd get a strength and conditioning analyst.

 

[PANDFAN]

Notre Dame: Former South Dakota (FCS) corners coach & former Southern University (FCS – LA) special teams coordinator Marty Biagi is joining the Notre Dame staff as special teams analyst. Biagi received special mention among the 2014 Finalists for the FootballScoop Special Teams Coordinator of the Year.

 

[PANDFAN]

Southern notched an incredible eight special teams touchdowns [that] year, as three separate plpayers returned kickoffs for a total of four touchdowns and a blocked punt for a score. The eight special teams scores are believed to be an FCS record. The Jaguards have notched a total of 14 special teams touchdowns in the past three seasons."

Biagi was a punter and placekicker for Marshall University from 2004-07.

247

 

[ulukinatme]

Notre Dame: Former South Dakota (FCS) corners coach & former Southern University (FCS – LA) special teams coordinator Marty Biagi is joining the Notre Dame staff as special teams analyst. Biagi received special mention among the 2014 Finalists for the FootballScoop Special Teams Coordinator of the Year.

Yes!

I'd like to see what Sanders can do with some better blocking on returns, and our kick coverage could be better too. I'm convinced that any success we had on Special Teams last year had more to do with Sanders and Yoon's raw talents and not so much Booker's coaching.

 

[Big23Head]

Southern notched an incredible eight special teams touchdowns [that] year, as three separate plpayers returned kickoffs for a total of four touchdowns and a blocked punt for a score. The eight special teams scores are believed to be an FCS record. The Jaguards have notched a total of 14 special teams touchdowns in the past three seasons."

Biagi was a punter and placekicker for Marshall University from 2004-07.

247

To add from II, there is a poster that knows him directly. ND is his absolutely dream job. He has family members, dad and brother, that attended ND and he has been a fan since he was a child. When asked if he was coaching against ND who would he root for: He said the only way he would root against ND was if his kicker was on the field to kick a game winner, otherwise all ND.

 

[texbender]

We've needed to upgrade ST for several years. Good ST play can be worth a couple of TDs easily per game. Sanders was a definite improvement last year, but let's ramp it up. Good pick up for the TEAM.

 

[irishff1014]

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Big 12, but it's a conference of awful defense. It's a lot of high powered offense and Oklahoma is one of the few that actually play decent defense at times which is why they're successful. A lot of the "good" Big 12 teams weren't even that good until the last 5 years or so, it's no wonder Bob has been successful in his career. Tell me BK couldn't pull out 10 wins at Oklahoma when you're facing 1-2 decent teams in your conference each year and a couple cupcake ooc games. Given the lack of restrictions in academics, the weak conference, and the recruiting draw Oklahoma has it's not magic that the Sooners have been successful. I'm not sure why we'd want a guy that has been 1-2 against Texas the last 3 years despite their turmoil, and frequently gets out-coached by lesser teams. If you put Bob at Notre Dame for the 2015 season, I'd bet he doesn't come away with 10 wins given the injuries.

I think would kill it there. But how many times did Oklahoma lose to Tulsa at home, get smoke by Navy and lose multiple times to Navy?

 

[arrowryan]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Per sources, Notre Dame is adding Central Arkansas OLB coach Harland Bower. <a href="https://t.co/vZgFaSBldj">https://t.co/vZgFaSBldj</a></p>— CoachingSearch.com (@coachingsearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/coachingsearch/status/704676785695367168">March 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[dublinirish]

He redshirted during one season as a player at Central Michigan in 2005, when Brian Kelly was the head coach. He also played under Brian VanGorder at Georgia Southern.

Interesting hire, Bower is taking Mo Crum's defensive GA job after he left

 

[irishff1014]

With the news of Hounshell transferring out and assuming we don't get a transfer what does that leave us at?

 

[PANDFAN]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">5am wake up call.<br>Ready to work. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CampKelly?src=hash">#CampKelly</a> <a href="https://t.co/fOY2g67juq">pic.twitter.com/fOY2g67juq</a></p>— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/705351026912727040">March 3, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Irishcop]

Does anyone know if any of ND'S current wide receivers can maybe match Will Fuller speed? I really wished Fuller would have stayed for his senior year. Such a difference maker with that speed.

 

[koonja]

Does anyone know if any of ND'S current wide receivers can maybe match Will Fuller speed? I really wished Fuller would have stayed for his senior year. Such a difference maker with that speed.

No. He was the fastest WR in college football, and top 5 fastest players in all of college football. That's not a role you fill year to year, that's special, once in 5-year type of talent.