Brian Kelly Revisited (RIP BOZO)

[arrowryan]

The fact that we can pay players now, as a rich school, probably matters too.

Everyone can though. That’s not just a Notre Dame thing. If anything, it should be harder for Notre Dame to get top kids consistently now.

Marcus Freeman would be taking everyone’s lunch on the trail if he didn’t have to deal with outrageous money getting dealt out.

 

[Dale]

as a rich school

Nearly every school in the SEC and B1G should be able to call themselves a rich school

 

[NDdomer2]

Nearly every school in the SEC and B1G should be able to call themselves a rich school

I do think it's worth pointing out these schools already were and we weren't and now we're playing same game.

 

[ulukinatme]

BK was shoppin' down a different aisle! That aisle just happened to be a Wal-Mart produce section, when there was a Whole Foods across the street within budget the whole time.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

Hey its Chubbs from Teen Wolf

Pee Wee Herman’s nemesis.

 

[jprue24]

Pee Wee Herman’s nemesis.

I thought about throwing a picture of Francis up

 

[NDFAN2008]

Brian Kelly was a good awful recruiter and we lost out on many top guys because of him. Freeman is night and day better than him. Shit if Freeman was the head coach at LSU they would land 10 5 stars every year

 

[ulukinatme]

Brian Kelly was a good awful recruiter and we lost out on many top guys because of him. Freeman is night and day better than him. Shit if Freeman was the head coach at LSU they would land 10 5 stars every year

Don't give them any ideas...they wanted Freeman once before, and BK's seat is probably a bit warm for what they're paying him.

 

[forkbeard3777]

Looks like BK really knew how to coach em up. Doing more with less. 😂

 

[forkbeard3777]

The stat isn’t surprising. Anyone that pays attention can see the overall quality of player and athleticism difference in Kelly’s Notre Dame teams vs. Freeman’s Notre Dame teams. Kelly would have strong offensive line units and guys here and there, but Freeman’s teams (especially in the defensive side) look to be faster and notably better players.

 

[arrowryan]

Looks like BK really knew how to coach em up. Doing more with less. 😂

He was really good at winning the games he was supposed to. I’ll give him that.

 

[NDRock]

The biggest disappointment about Kelly, IMO, was the lack of “chip on his shoulder” he had. I really thought the guy would come in and be a dog in recruiting. He worked his way up through the ranks and it seemed like he was the type of guy who wanted to prove himself against the big boys. He went about recruiting like it was below him. It’s really what kept him from reaching the final step while he was here.

 

[Jimmy3Putt]

The biggest disappointment about Kelly, IMO, was the lack of “chip on his shoulder” he had. I really thought the guy would come in and be a dog in recruiting. He worked his way up through the ranks and it seemed like he was the type of guy who wanted to prove himself against the big boys. He went about recruiting like it was below him. It’s really what kept him from reaching the final step while he was here.

Agreed. He was supposed to be the disrespected underdog, but instead was the entitled ego maniac.

 

[stlnd01]

The biggest disappointment about Kelly, IMO, was the lack of “chip on his shoulder” he had. I really thought the guy would come in and be a dog in recruiting. He worked his way up through the ranks and it seemed like he was the type of guy who wanted to prove himself against the big boys. He went about recruiting like it was below him. It’s really what kept him from reaching the final step while he was here.

To be fair, BK and his staff swung for the fences in recruiting a fair bit in the early years. Then they got burned on, well, a bunch of guys, and started focusing a lot more on fit.

 

[ulukinatme]

Looks like BK really knew how to coach em up. Doing more with less. 😂

You're not wrong really. After BK overhauled the coaching staff following the disastrous 2016 season we saw big improvements that setup our current run. Mike Elko began the defensive transformation that continued under Lea and then Freeman/Golden. The blue chip numbers weren't great, but the players were more fundamentally sound and played as a unit. It led to success, but we weren't going to turn the corner and get elite without better recruiting like we're seeing now.

 

[NDRock]

To be fair, BK and his staff swung for the fences in recruiting a fair bit in the early years. Then they got burned on, well, a bunch of guys, and started focusing a lot more on fit.

Ah, poor guy had some bad experiences so he quit trying. That’s what the fucking money was for.

 

[HouseofPain]

Agree. BK was about the prestige and easy money. His shiny cover had wore off and he was old at ND. Going to LSU was extremely low hanging fruit for him. Laughable academics and one of the top feeding grounds for talent.

The guy was so flippin arrogant. I remember his very first recruit signing day and he was on video telling people how they should tie their ties and at what length they should be. What a flippin clown show he was.

Truly glad he took his show elsewhere.

 

[stlnd01]

Ah, poor guy had some bad experiences so he quit trying. That’s what the fucking money was for.

Not for nothing, his results on the field actually improved and led to the best five-year stretch of Notre Dame football in almost three decades.

But, no, he was never going to win a title building a roster that way. Freeman seems able to recruit at a higher level while also bringing in kids who can make it at Notre Dame.

 

[ulukinatme]

Not for nothing, his results on the field actually improved and led to the best five-year stretch of Notre Dame football in almost three decades.

But, no, he was never going to win a title building a roster that way. Freeman seems able to recruit at a higher level while also bringing in kids who can make it at Notre Dame.

I give more credit to the coordinators for turning things around than BK, but at least BK was willing to let go of some of his longtime associates in favor of new blood.

I haven't done an in depth dive, but I feel like BK got away from landing as many of the Catholic and private school kids from football powerhouses that we were accustomed to going after regularly. The St. Thomas Aquinas in FL type schools, St. X in Cinci, etc, kids that already have excellent academic backgrounds and play football at a high level.

 

[TheProspector]

Not for nothing, his results on the field actually improved and led to the best five-year stretch of Notre Dame football in almost three decades.

But, no, he was never going to win a title building a roster that way. Freeman seems able to recruit at a higher level while also bringing in kids who can make it at Notre Dame.

“The best five year stretch of ND football in three decades.”

This encapsulates all that is wrong with the BK era. BK got credit because three loser head coaches in Davie, Willingham, and Weis should not have been hired and were in over their heads. And it took 8 years for BK to figure out that hiring defensive coordinators from the Cincy/GVSU coaching tree was a bad idea.

BK is a solid coach but is highly overrated. His success at Cincy was surpassed by Fickell. His succes at ND has already been surpassed by Marcus. And he’s treading water at LSU with three straight 3+ loss seasons. If he doesn’t make the playoffs this year, he may even be shown the door.

 

[KPENN]

To be fair, BK and his staff swung for the fences in recruiting a fair bit in the early years. Then they got burned on, well, a bunch of guys, and started focusing a lot more on fit.

MF has been burned too. If MF had this attitude basically hardly any of this class(maybe except for the o-line is in it).

Also, “fit” is basically “guys I don’t have to put a lot of work in on). As we’ve seen with MF there are highly ranked kids that are fits at ND

 

[The Polish Irishman]

Saw him at the golf course the other day down in the panhandle of Florida. My son works at the course, and he was a couple of holes in front of us. A lot of LSU fans where I live and they don't seem to like him very much.

 

[ndfanatic78]

One of the things I love most about Marcus is I have no idea if he likes to golf or not.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

One of the things I love most about Marcus is I have no idea if he likes to golf or not.

As a person who doesnt really like golf at all, I feel like those who like golf have given up on life and just want to be left alone to wallow in their own self pity and are in search for some semblance of cathartic release that they purposefully punish themselves while spending abhorent amounts of money they worked really hard to obtain.

 

[Free Manera]

Prister put out a great article yesterday about the behind the scenes stuff leading to Freeman's hiring. Kelly approached ND after the GA Tech game and laid down a list of demands. Despite knowing Kelly was likely looking around, Swarbrick was like eh, let's not.

I know a lot of us suspected that ND was ready to move on from him, this just adds more fuel to that fire. Which was not the intent of the article at all, its really about how Freeman "was the right man for the job."

 

[irishnd31]

As a person who doesnt really like golf at all, I feel like those who like golf have given up on life and just want to be left alone to wallow in their own self pity and are in search for some semblance of cathartic release that they purposefully punish themselves while spending abhorent amounts of money they worked really hard to obtain.

Mini Golf also applies to this...

 

[ndfanatic78]

As a person who doesnt really like golf at all, I feel like those who like golf have given up on life and just want to be left alone to wallow in their own self pity and are in search for some semblance of cathartic release that they purposefully punish themselves while spending abhorent amounts of money they worked really hard to obtain.

This exact same statement could be made about a pot head. Just replace golf with marijauna, lol

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

As a person who doesnt really like golf at all, I feel like those who like golf have given up on life and just want to be left alone to wallow in their own self pity and are in search for some semblance of cathartic release that they purposefully punish themselves while spending abhorent amounts of money they worked really hard to obtain.

as someone who for some reason loves to golf (and is extremely average at it), this is hurtfully accurate lol, sans the self-pity portion.

It is honestly fun, but I try not to think about how expensive of a hobby it is.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

as someone who for some reason loves to golf (and is extremely average at it), this is hurtfully accurate lol, sans the self-pity portion.

It is honestly fun, but I try not to think about how expensive of a hobby it is.

Agree. Thats why I spent all my money on pot.

 

[Irish5Saint]

Prister put out a great article yesterday about the behind the scenes stuff leading to Freeman's hiring. Kelly approached ND after the GA Tech game and laid down a list of demands. Despite knowing Kelly was likely looking around, Swarbrick was like eh, let's not.

I know a lot of us suspected that ND was ready to move on from him, this just adds more fuel to that fire. Which was not the intent of the article at all, it’s really about how Freeman "was the right man for the job."

When that happened, I can assure you Kelly was set on leaving. Based on other articles, he was looking around by the start of November. The calls by his agent the week of Stanford were nothing more than a chance for him to run up the benefits from LSU.