B
Bogtrotter07
Guest
Mike, sorry for starting this thread with your post, but it is so apropos. Thanks for the great start!
With Kelly, character is everything. I see it in everything he does. I see it because it has become more important to me as I grow to maturity.
Let’s start with a little relevant timeline:
• Last summer Jordan Prestwood transferred to ND from FSU
• This winter Charlie Molner left the coaching staff. At that time the Scott Booker was announced as a new coach, with a position TBD.
• Molner was followed closely by two more coaches. The three were quickly identified as “never quite fitting in.”
• Amir Carlyle transferred in and John Goodman was granted a fifth year.
• Two new highly praised coaches were hired, (panned by the peanut gallery, when those around the football business throughout the country were asked, the hires turned out to be “brilliant,” in terms of individual quality and coaching ability.
• After this recruiting cycle, Notre Dame has between two and three times the players, that can play at a high level, at every position.
With me so far?
I heard a couple of stories I could not dismiss. One was about a top skilled recruit that we had on our board for only a short while. It seems he wanted to set conditions for his playing for the college he ended up at, instead of it being the other way around. Also, I have heard more than once there were sticking points for each of the athletes we lost months before thing blew up with any of them. Coach Kelly laid it out. Character is king. That is the first and foremost interview quality that the coach looks for. It is the hardest to interpret. Look at any of the four; they weren’t the person that the coaching staff thought they recruited.
Whether it is grades or self-discipline, knowing what you want, or setting goals, there is a common quality among this year’s recruits, from Day, to Shepard to Ferguson, to Turner. Baratti and Brown have it as does Okwara. Kiel said it in his interview, “let me know where I can help.” I didn’t see it in the four that left, over and over, their attitudes left me short and their personal presentation left me unsure.
Why? Because in this day, if a coach doesn’t mine that quality character, he has to rely on something else like over recruiting and one year scholarships. At Notre Dame, Kelly needs his players to walk through walls if he says so, to achieve team goals.
Another illustration of this is a conversation that my father, a WWII vet who was awarded a Bronze Star with clusters had with me when I was a kid. After I announced that I would like to enter the military, he told me that if I ever went in the service, to expect to be treated badly in the beginning, and that they would do horrible things to me. I will never forget him looking in my eyes and saying, “because when you are in the field, and someone starts firing a machine gun at you, and they tell you to hit the ground you will do it without thinking, even if it is in a pile of cow ****.”
So many young men today have met with success and have dreams of NFL stardom in their eyes. They are surrounded by hangers on that don’t know the first thing about anything. And of course our society rewards shortcuts and the quickest path to the top, when it is hard work every time.
If you look at the time line events from above, you will see how Coach Kelly put himself in a perfect position not to have to depend on any one recruit in this class, which is a necessity if he ever wants to be successful.
As far as some of the comments today: I cannot believe that any of you vitriolic posters would be willing to reveal that about yourselves. Much of it was something some hormone therapy could cure; some of it was so out there that you should just get a new hobby. Weis may have needed this recruit or that; Kelly does not; and his recruits know it. They will have to put up or shut up. Get used to it!
Simply stated, Kelly needs as many players ready to play at a high level. That is happening. This year's class is proof. I am kind of proud that the coaching staff doesn't feel like they have to kiss ***. I am not going to say another thing. Kill the thread or begin a mature discussion, either is fine with me.
Last edited:
