A Letter to Brian Kelly

[phgreek]

No secret I'm on the Kelly bandwagon, so we'll never agree on this topic...I won't bore anyone with my rationale.

Look, I am hopefull for change...as in, sit some folks who can't handle the mental aspects of the game, and move to the future. And yes, I'd flat *** tell folks this is punishment for wilting like an orchid. Might even make them all sit down to pee all week. I'll admit, if I were Kelly, Hendricks would be my starter next week...I'd be all over Diaco for justification for who is starting on D...or even sees the field next week...my freshman would be punting...and 6 would not see the field on special teams, and would be splitting his reps 50/50 with his now backup. Thats just my opinion. I am all about accountability, and I am a fan of the dog house...but then I'm not Brian Kelly, and I'm not the coach in his Locker Room...just some guy in Utah with an A$$hole and an opinion.

I am for people criticizing specifics like pointing out that the 3rd down play calling appeared pretty pedestrian...or, what hapened to our adjustments on D...after all, isn't that why we are here...to some degree, to talk about technical aspects too?

I am even ok with a fan throwing out an open letter in honest hope that it may provide perspective and help.

Finally, I think we all share in the disappoitnment of a season pretty much shot in the a$$ as compared to our expectations...it isn't over, but we sure as hell ain't going undefeated, and it isn't likely we better our record from last year.

All that said, your letter seems personal, and self serving... Look, I wouldn't begrudge anyone some form of catharsis after the two weeks we've had...but I think you'd have been better to PM this to some of your pals on here...or just nuking it after you wrote it...

 

[Rhode Irish]

After a heartwrenching loss to a mediocre (at best) Michigan team who probably has the worst combination of offense and defense that we will face all year, this is what you come up with:

"We're not good enough, there's not one individual in that locker room — including all the coaches — who are good enough right now."

Seriously, Brian? We're not good enough? Not one individual? Michael Floyd isn't good enough? Manti Te'o isn't good enough? Cierre Wood, Theo Riddick, TJ Jones, Jonas Gray, Ethan Johnson, Kapron Lewis-Moore, Louis Nix, Tyler Eifert, Tommy Rees, RJ Blanton aren't good enough? I could go on Brian. And the common thread is that they are all good enough. I can point to a multitude of things that went wrong and a couple of players who were abused last night, but I can only think of one person right now who isn't good enough.

I think you know who I'm talking about.

I don't know when it's going to click for you. When are you going to get it? Are you that soft? Do you honestly think anyone will respect you more for running the clock out than for putting your foot on the opponent's throat and finishing it? Do you know what stage you are even on?

You're not good enough Brian. When you're good enough, we will win. But right now, you aren't good enough and no one is to blame but you. What did you see in the first half that you didn't like that would make you change your model? Moving up and down the field at will, that isn't good enough to win? What would make you think that a good option on third and short is to run the only play Michigan has been able to stop all night? Honestly, we could have thrown every down all night long and they couldn't have stopped it. I'm not sure putting up a sign that says "PUT 9 IN THE BOX, WE'RE GOING UP THE MIDDLE!" could have made you more predictable. And to think that this game should have been out of reach in the first half and your lack of coaching would have been a moot point.

Let's be honest here. You know how this game was lost. You are making excuses out of anger and the truth is that this is the best team we have fielded since Lou Holtz was on the sidelines. You don't know how to coach them. You're stubborn and you refuse to play to the size of this stage. You pull pages from the Charlie Weis book of mediocrity constantly and you don't get why we lose these games? We're not good enough yet?

Come on Brian. You've got 10 more games to figure this out. This team could make a BCS bowl at 10-2 and win it with this talent because of one thing. They are good enough.

I know you've been a winner everywhere you've gone. But that was somewhere else, and this is Notre Dame. No one could care less about beating Cincinatti. No one could care less about beating Central Michigan. This is Notre Dame, and beating Notre Dame is like winning a bowl game. You need to come to grips with where you are. If it's simply the learning curve for playing on this stage that you are adapting too then you could turn it around. If it's a lack of respect for the emblem on the jersey that causes your blindness then you aren't the right guy for this job.

There is no one to blame for this 0-2 start but you, Brian.

You aren't good enough right now. When you're good enough, we will win.

GTFO. Idiot. Kelly didn't tell Rees to drop the football when ND was about to ice the game, nor could he have done anything to prevent the defense's stuffing Michigan at the goal line turning into one of the strangest touchdowns I've ever seen.

The coaches put the players in position to win the game. Same as last week. Blaming the coaches is simplistic and, in this case, flat out wrong. Its a cop out.

I'll tell you who is on watch, though: Gary Gray. His NFL dreams are hanging by a thread. He has to step his play up big-time or this team will have a hard time climbing out of this whole they've dug.

 

[enrico514]

GTFO. Idiot. Kelly didn't tell Rees to drop the football when ND was about to ice the game, nor could he have done anything to prevent the defense's stuffing Michigan at the goal line turning into one of the strangest touchdowns I've ever seen.

The coaches put the players in position to win the game. Same as last week. Blaming the coaches is simplistic and, in this case, flat out wrong. Its a cop out.

I'll tell you who is on watch, though: Gary Gray. His NFL dreams are hanging by a thread. He has to step his play up big-time or this team will have a hard time climbing out of this whole they've dug.

^^^^^^^ THIS !!!

 

[NDFANnSouthWest]

Two bounces the other way all everyone that is bitching is praising BK and the team. I would suggest all the monday morning quarterbacks send their resume' into swarbrick.

 

[PJWhitfield]

I'd give Kelly the benefit of the doubt. Notre Dame hasn't won all the marbles in 23 years, and the teams in that period have run the gamut from weak to overrated. It's going to take time. Year three and four will tell us more because then he will have a full roster of total Kelly recruits. Before the season started, I thought he'd be 2-0 at this point. But even if Notre Dame had eked out wins in both games, the Irish would still be a work in progress.

 

[koonja]

Two bounces the other way all everyone that is bitching is praising BK and the team. I would suggest all the monday morning quarterbacks send their resume' into swarbrick.

I don't blame Kelly for either loss. He had a game plan good enough to be 2-0 this year, if not for strange turnovers.

However, one thing I do question is his supposed 'player development'.

EJ, Teo, Flemming and Shembo especially, Harrison, Gray, Crist, Theo, etc, all look the same if not worse than last year. I don't get that.

Zero improvement besides Cierre.

 

[irishff1014]

I'd give Kelly the benefit of the doubt. Notre Dame hasn't won all the marbles in 23 years, and the teams in that period have run the gamut from weak to overrated. It's going to take time. Year three and four will tell us more because then he will have a full roster of total Kelly recruits. Before the season started, I thought he'd be 2-0 at this point. But even if Notre Dame had eked out wins in both games, the Irish would still be a work in progress.

No 5 turn overs and 9 penalties for 75 yards is what kills this theam.

 

[PADOMERNUT]

No, Brian Kelly made adjustments. He went from full speed ahead to cruise control. It's the same thing people said last year. He's got a small-time mentality. He doesn't get it.

Any coach can coach a win from behind. I could do that. It takes a big time coach who gets it to coach with the lead. That's why Saban, Meyer, Tressel, Carroll, and Stoops all succeed. They know that the key to coaching with the lead is to never take your foot off the gas. When a team is demoralized it's no time to take sympathy and show respect for them. He just doesn't get it.

No you couldnt.

 

[PADOMERNUT]

BRIAN KELLY'S JOB IS SAFE. HE WILL NOT BE FIRED. 15 GAMES IS ENOUGH???? YOU PEOPLE ARE F'N NUTS

 

[WaveDomer]

If you fire a guy who finished out last season in a great fashion, got a great recruiting class, and has only been at the school for a bit over a year, because of 2 losses, you will have the hardest time attracting any normal human being to coach this team. The job is already unrealistic with the schedule of things to do. Why make it completely impossible expecting a BCS or firing after a year? BK is getting his 5 years to do what he can do, unless he does something to disgrace the school legally or morally.

 

[OchoShayneO]

I bet you didn't really send that letter.

 

[BurningRiver]

this game was partially his fault. and i thought his "we just aren't good enough" comment was stupid, and wrong.

but that being said, if any of you are calling for his head already, be PATIENT. patience is a virtue. rome wasn't built in one day.

 

[irishff1014]

BRIAN KELLY'S JOB IS SAFE. HE WILL NOT BE FIRED. 15 GAMES IS ENOUGH???? YOU PEOPLE ARE F'N NUTS

No they willkeep saying it. I agree with you. If his players could hold on to the ball no one is even mentioning the word fire.

 

[irishff1014]

this game was partially his fault. and i thought his "we just aren't good enough" comment was stupid, and wrong.

but that being said, if any of you are calling for his head already, be PATIENT. patience is a virtue. rome wasn't built in one day.

Maybe this is his way of sending them a message because what ever he said last week didn't work either.

 

[tommyIRISH23]

The rationale of blaming Brian Kelly for these two losses may enable you to fit in with your liberal politically correct circles of friends that hang out at starbucks where every failure/loser in life is given a cop out for their screw ups by being able to place the blame on someone else, and rejecting all personal accountability, but this is football, not some little pop warner league where every spaz gets a trophy for "trying" his best.

This is big time football, the coach puts you in place to make plays, and you have to make the ****ing play. You have to turn around and make a play on the ball. You have to hold onto the ****ing ball. You have to catch the ****ing ball. ND is a team of fragile little children that do not know how to win, and cannot fight adversity. They wilt like little babies.

It doesn't matter who the coach is, Nick Saban would fail with these fragile/weak excuses for football players.

Until ND recruits players that come into the program with a chip on their shoulder, and are hungry, they will wilt like little pink tulips.

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

I would suggest all the monday morning quarterbacks send their resume' into swarbrick.

Heh, I can pretty much guarantee you i'd have the exact same record as a head coach as he does this year. I don't know who thats sadder for...

 

[NDFANnSouthWest]

Heh, I can pretty much guarantee you i'd have the exact same record as a head coach as he does this year. I don't know who thats sadder for...

LOL. good one.

 

[rikkitikki08]

In no one is this lose on brian kelly, 9 turnovers in 2 games is what lost the games

 

[enrico514]

Heh, I can pretty much guarantee you i'd have the exact same record as a head coach as he does this year. I don't know who thats sadder for...

BK's resume speaks for itself. Teams go through rough patches. Yes we have two Ls already this year but it's clear the fundamentals of the program are heading in the right direction.

 

[Kak7304]

The people calling for Kelly's head are probably the same ones that thought Dayne should have started over Clausen.

 

[Free Manera]

The rationale of blaming Brian Kelly for these two losses may enable you to fit in with your liberal politically correct circles of friends that hang out at starbucks where every failure/loser in life is given a cop out for their screw ups by being able to place the blame on someone else, and rejecting all personal accountability, but this is football, not some little pop warner league where every spaz gets a trophy for "trying" his best.

This is big time football, the coach puts you in place to make plays, and you have to make the ****ing play. You have to turn around and make a play on the ball. You have to hold onto the ****ing ball. You have to catch the ****ing ball. ND is a team of fragile little children that do not know how to win, and cannot fight adversity. They wilt like little babies.

It doesn't matter who the coach is, Nick Saban would fail with these fragile/weak excuses for football players.

Until ND recruits players that come into the program with a chip on their shoulder, and are hungry, they will wilt like little pink tulips.

I think this is true. #1 on my recruiting wish list is a straight thug at safety who receivers are afraid of. We need DB's that have something to prove and get insulted when a quarterback throws their way. It seems like the current DB's reaction is "Oh **** he's throwing my side..."

 

[ulukinatme]

Nobody fears the Irish anymore. They used to, we need to change that. Maybe we can't. We've been reduced to a doormat. Gotta quit taking our foot off the pedal and keep it on the gas.

 

[theclassickiller]

You are not good enough to be a fan of this program!!!

This is the type of quote from someone who didn't read the letter. I never said our players didn't make mistakes. In fact I said they did. I didn't say I'm jumping ship. I never even said the season is lost.

What I said is that Kelly has made mistakes and refuses to learn from them.

I'd like to hear from someone who didn't know Kelly was going up the middle on the third down plays. I'd like to see someone who thought that the two drives where we went three and out weren't vanilla, conservative playcalling. I'd like to see someone who thinks that no one on this team is good enough or that we didn't have 10x the talent of Michigan and USF combined. Come on people. Wake up.

Sure they made mistakes. That's doomed us. But this loss is on Kelly. At the end of the game when it mattered most our players actually played well (with the exception of the last 30 seconds) and kept giving Kelly chances to put the game away. He refused to do it.

I'm not calling for his firing. That would put us in a hole we might never get out of.

But your blind if you don't see what's going on here. Big time coaches make big time decisions and get big time wins when they have this kind of talent. Kelly has to learn to be big time. Right now he's not, and it's not good enough.

 

[theclassickiller]

The rationale of blaming Brian Kelly for these two losses may enable you to fit in with your liberal politically correct circles of friends that hang out at starbucks where every failure/loser in life is given a cop out for their screw ups by being able to place the blame on someone else, and rejecting all personal accountability, but this is football, not some little pop warner league where every spaz gets a trophy for "trying" his best.

This is big time football, the coach puts you in place to make plays, and you have to make the ****ing play. You have to turn around and make a play on the ball. You have to hold onto the ****ing ball. You have to catch the ****ing ball. ND is a team of fragile little children that do not know how to win, and cannot fight adversity. They wilt like little babies.

It doesn't matter who the coach is, Nick Saban would fail with these fragile/weak excuses for football players.

Until ND recruits players that come into the program with a chip on their shoulder, and are hungry, they will wilt like little pink tulips.

Is that what happened on the third downs we needed to ice the game?

 

[irishff1014]

What really killed us was 2 turnovers in the red zone again.

 

[theclassickiller]

GTFO. Idiot. Kelly didn't tell Rees to drop the football when ND was about to ice the game, nor could he have done anything to prevent the defense's stuffing Michigan at the goal line turning into one of the strangest touchdowns I've ever seen.

The coaches put the players in position to win the game. Same as last week. Blaming the coaches is simplistic and, in this case, flat out wrong. Its a cop out.

I'll tell you who is on watch, though: Gary Gray. His NFL dreams are hanging by a thread. He has to step his play up big-time or this team will have a hard time climbing out of this whole they've dug.

What makes my side idiotic and your side rational? Could the players have not turned the ball over making Kelly's calls moot? Yes. Could Kelly have put his foot on the pedal to put the game away making the turnovers moot? Yes. Why should I only see one side? It's not a simple cop out blaming the coach for bad calls. Is he not getting paid millions of dollars to bring out the best play in a bunch of guys in the teens and early 20's?

You're blaming the players for making mistakes and I can't blame Kelly for doing it? He's well over 40! He's a man!

The name calling is ridiculous, I never said anyone who disagreed is an idiot. Fine, you disagree, that's how you see it.

I believe in Kelly. Atleast I believe he can learn. Will he ever be great? Not if he refuses to accept he's playing on a different level now. If he can realize his mistakes and learn from them instead of continuing to make them then I believe he can be great because he obviously knows how to get play out of guys.

 

[Rhode Irish]

What makes my side idiotic and your side rational? Could the players have not turned the ball over making Kelly's calls moot? Yes. Could Kelly have put his foot on the pedal to put the game away making the turnovers moot? Yes. Why should I only see one side? It's not a simple cop out blaming the coach for bad calls. Is he not getting paid millions of dollars to bring out the best play in a bunch of guys in the teens and early 20's?

You're blaming the players for making mistakes and I can't blame Kelly for doing it? He's well over 40! He's a man!

The name calling is ridiculous, I never said anyone who disagreed is an idiot. Fine, you disagree, that's how you see it.

I believe in Kelly. Atleast I believe he can learn. Will he ever be great? Not if he refuses to accept he's playing on a different level now. If he can realize his mistakes and learn from them instead of continuing to make them then I believe he can be great because he obviously knows how to get play out of guys.

Because the coaches' game plan put the team in position to win, and the players did not execute for 60 minutes. Of all the play calls that happen in a game, there are bound to be some that, in hindsight, you wish were different. There are even probably some calls that were actually wrong, I guess. But it is idiotic that that would lead you to write a long, hysterical letter. Especially in light of the fact that the team was :02 from winning the damn game, a game in which they repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with stupid turnovers and bad mental mistakes on defense.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

BK's Cincy teams scored more than 40 points 6 times in his last year there (they scored 70 once). Of their 12 wins, only 4 were by fewer than 10 points...two of those wins were to ranked teams. The assertion that Kelly doesn't know how to turn the dagger is, in my opinion, wrong headed.


As I have said, we're better than we were last year. That's due, in large part, to Kelly.

Point 1: We have more than 1000 total yards of offense. That's absurd.
Point 2: The offensive line is dominating at times. That's new. Hasn't happened in 10 years.
Point 3: The defense, which had a terrible 4th quarter, has been much improved in the last 6-7 games.
Point 4: Denard Robinson is, regrettably, really good. He killed us.

The BCS expectations were clearly off. But, we're improving.

 

[theclassickiller]

Because the coaches' game plan put the team in position to win, and the players did not execute for 60 minutes. Of all the play calls that happen in a game, there are bound to be some that, in hindsight, you wish were different. There are even probably some calls that were actually wrong, I guess. But it is idiotic that that would lead you to write a long, hysterical letter. Especially in light of the fact that the team was :02 from winning the damn game, a game in which they repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with stupid turnovers and bad mental mistakes on defense.

And I see how you think this. You aren't wrong in saying that we were :02 from winning, or that we shot ourselves in the foot. But the fact is that Michigan had no way to stop our offense. There were two things that stopped our offense: turnovers and Kelly's calls. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Football 101: when there are 8 guys in the box, don't run up the middle. Especially when you NEED THAT FIRST DOWN to seal the game.

The one thing we needed to do at the end of the game was keep the ball out of Michigan's hands. When it mattered most, who put the ball in Michigan's hands? It wasn't the turnovers.

 

[theclassickiller]

No you couldnt.

Ha, that's probably true. But I could have made the defensive call to stop those third downs!