Brian Kelly Revisited (RIP BOZO)

Brian Kelly Revisited

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greyhammer90

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What they described was a coach who delegated too much authority, didn’t care enough about recruiting and failed to bond with his players; an athletic director who was unusually involved in football day-to-day; and a program with national title aspirations but didn’t function like its rivals.

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ND and LSU fans
 
IrishLax

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KPENN said:
Well come on now…..
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This was many years ago, so I may have some slight details wrongs, but basically after Kelly left ND it was chaos. He wanted to bring a large chunk of the ND staff with him, and Swarbrick said "absolutely-the-fuck-not" with Freeman and Rees and got them to pause while they were considered for the HC job.

These guys are all adults with families and need jobs. So Associate Head Coach Mike Elston was originally going to follow Kelly to LSU, and had even flown down there to Louisiana. He's like minutes away from being introduced as a key hire by Kelly and has a moment of clarity where he's like "I can't do this" -> abruptly leaves -> goes straight to the airport and flies back to South Bend not responding to calls/texts from Kelly.
 
IRISHDODGER

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dublinirish said:


free link: A $95 million bet gone wrong: Inside Brian Kelly’s last days at LSU -…

Where have we heard this before:
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Thanks for sharing. Nothing really surprising here for ND fans. Here’s the quote that I think fans of all SEC powers still can’t digest:

“It’s not the old days — and when I say the old days, I mean like five years ago — where you could just load up on talent and have depth, you could win 70 percent of your games with your C-plus game,” the first LSU staffer said. “It’s like the NFL now. You’ve gotta hit on your evaluations, especially the big-money guys, your five-stars, you gotta hit there.
“Coaching matters. Scheme matters. And where we missed here, is those guys that are really getting paid money, they have to want to play for you. Or else it’ll be transactional to them. And that matters when it comes to coming together as a team.”
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This isn’t the BCS era anymore. It’s a whole new ballgame. Every competitive team pays players well now. 4/5-stars will transfer out if they aren’t starting immediately.
 
stlnd01

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IrishLax said:
This was many years ago, so I may have some slight details wrongs, but basically after Kelly left ND it was chaos. He wanted to bring a large chunk of the ND staff with him, and Swarbrick said "absolutely-the-fuck-not" with Freeman and Rees and got them to pause while they were considered for the HC job.

These guys are all adults with families and need jobs. So Associate Head Coach Mike Elston was originally going to follow Kelly to LSU, and had even flown down there to Louisiana. He's like minutes away from being introduced as a key hire by Kelly and has a moment of clarity where he's like "I can't do this" -> abruptly leaves -> goes straight to the airport and flies back to South Bend not responding to calls/texts from Kelly.
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Just the start of a wild couple years for that guy.
 
IRISHDODGER

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IrishLax said:
This was many years ago, so I may have some slight details wrongs, but basically after Kelly left ND it was chaos. He wanted to bring a large chunk of the ND staff with him, and Swarbrick said "absolutely-the-fuck-not" with Freeman and Rees and got them to pause while they were considered for the HC job.

These guys are all adults with families and need jobs. So Associate Head Coach Mike Elston was originally going to follow Kelly to LSU, and had even flown down there to Louisiana. He's like minutes away from being introduced as a key hire by Kelly and has a moment of clarity where he's like "I can't do this" -> abruptly leaves -> goes straight to the airport and flies back to South Bend not responding to calls/texts from Kelly.
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Fortuna recounted the same story. BK had just done his 5 minute farewell to the team and as he was leaving told a staffer “I need Freeman & Rees…they’re coming with me so I need to talk to them”. Swarbrick & Co put a stop to that ASAP & the rest is history.
 
thekid33

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IRISHDODGER said:
Fortuna recounted the same story. BK had just done his 5 minute farewell to the team and as he was leaving told a staffer “I need Freeman & Rees…they’re coming with me so I need to talk to them”. Swarbrick & Co put a stop to that ASAP & the rest is history.
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The hubris to just assume that they would automatically come with him is astounding.
 
dublinirish

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IRISHDODGER said:
Thanks for sharing. Nothing really surprising here for ND fans. Here’s the quote that I think fans of all SEC powers still can’t digest:


This isn’t the BCS era anymore. It’s a whole new ballgame. Every competitive team pays players well now. 4/5-stars will transfer out if they aren’t starting immediately.
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TBF BK had the same attitude going there, he figured recruiting would be easy and low effort because local 5 star kids would want to come to LSU for the brand alone
 
GoldenToTheGrave

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IrishLax said:
This was many years ago, so I may have some slight details wrongs, but basically after Kelly left ND it was chaos. He wanted to bring a large chunk of the ND staff with him, and Swarbrick said "absolutely-the-fuck-not" with Freeman and Rees and got them to pause while they were considered for the HC job.

These guys are all adults with families and need jobs. So Associate Head Coach Mike Elston was originally going to follow Kelly to LSU, and had even flown down there to Louisiana. He's like minutes away from being introduced as a key hire by Kelly and has a moment of clarity where he's like "I can't do this" -> abruptly leaves -> goes straight to the airport and flies back to South Bend not responding to calls/texts from Kelly.
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If there's one coach from the end of the Kelly era I wish we could have held onto it was Elston. From 2017 until he left the DL was arguably the biggest strength on the team, I consider him a Mike Mickens level of positions coach.
 
dublinirish

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GoldenToTheGrave said:
If there's one coach from the end of the Kelly era I wish we could have held onto it was Elston. From 2017 until he left the DL was arguably the biggest strength on the team, I consider him a Mike Mickens level of positions coach.
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Elston's family seemed to really love ND and his kids were fencers on the doorstep of the best fencing program in the country. Musta really crushed his kids when they decided to leave SB
 
stlnd01

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GoldenToTheGrave said:
If there's one coach from the end of the Kelly era I wish we could have held onto it was Elston. From 2017 until he left the DL was arguably the biggest strength on the team, I consider him a Mike Mickens level of positions coach.
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Yep, the DL was probably the consistently best unit on those late Kelly teams. Imagine having him and Mickens both for the last few years?
Long-run we were better with Golden as DC than we probably would have been with Elston, but I wonder if he ever regrets heading off to Michigan when he got passed over?
 
IrishBryan77

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dublinirish said:
Elston's family seemed to really love ND and his kids were fencers on the doorstep of the best fencing program in the country. Musta really crushed his kids when they decided to leave SB
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They won't be disappointed when they don't have to deal with cold and snow much anymore. 🤣
 
IRISHDODGER

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dublinirish said:
TBF BK had the same attitude going there, he figured recruiting would be easy and low effort because local 5 star kids would want to come to LSU for the brand alone
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I thought that as well. I underestimated the role of NIL but I also thought he had learned his lessons from 2016. Remember when the players & staff were impressed w/ BK showing up at early AM lifts & being more personable? Not sure if it lasted thru 2021 but I had the impression all was well. Guess he couldn’t wait to go back to his 2010-2016 habits & chill. I mean to have your AD do your recruiting for you is nuts.
 
BeatSC

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notredomer23 said:
David Grimes, the man who owns best catch by an ND receiver of the 21st century that didn't count but should have. This calls make the NC State and Boise refs look good

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I remember that. Our terrible season but what a catch! I think Clausen threw it. I also think we won this game.
 
Kingbish01

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Notre Dame Joe

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IRISHDODGER said:
Fortuna recounted the same story. BK had just done his 5 minute farewell to the team and as he was leaving told a staffer “I need Freeman & Rees…they’re coming with me so I need to talk to them”. Swarbrick & Co put a stop to that ASAP & the rest is history.
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I don't understand this. Jack could not have stopped them from going with Kelly if they wanted to do that.
 
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