Brian Kelly Revisited (RIP BOZO)

[Bishop2b5]

She fell for the fake accent

Well yeah, but didn't we all?

 

[Irish#1]

Everything you could say about Kelly has been said, but I do want to say thank you to Kelly for hiring Mr. Marcus Freeman.

 

[DONTH8]

One thing about Kelly is glaringly obvious now that Freeman's at the helm.

Kelly talks about Notre Dame's academics and athletics, but never the faith side of the university. That's a shame, because in my opinion it's one of its greatest strengths.

The molding of young men is amplified when it's supported through the lens of faith. Freeman talks about that openly and recognizes how central it is to the place. I don't think Kelly ever understood it. And frankly, I don't think he ever will.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Disagree completely

 

[DONTH8]

Disagree completely

On faith? I know it was one of his five pillars, intellectual, social, spiritual, skill, physical. But listen to the interview. Zero mention of it. And he moved Mass to Friday night. I get it, he "didn't remove it." But placing Mass at the center of the most important day of the week, instead of adjacent to it, tells players, at worst subconsciously, at best explicitly, what matters most. Moving it off game day tells them something too.

Beyond that, Kelly talked about growing up Irish Catholic, and that's about it. I'm not saying the man needed to get up and preach like Swinney. But there's no way a coach who truly understood Notre Dame could talk at length about the job, or the place, without the faith aspect ever coming up. It's one of the most powerful things about the university.

Unless, of course, they just never understood it.

 

[NDFAN420]

Mercy makes rulers safe
-Seneca

 

[Old Man Mike]

Disagree completely.

Kelly's message to my Mom was full of spiritual comments. He loved that Mom and Dad were married at the Log Chapel at Notre Dame.
(Hatred is an unhelpful state of mind.)

 

[Bane]

Brian Kelly? The Mountain West announcer??

 

[DONTH8]

Disagree completely.

Kelly's message to my Mom was full of spiritual comments. He loved that Mom and Dad were married at the Log Chapel at Notre Dame.
(Hatred is an unhelpful state of mind.)

That's a genuinely great story, and I don't doubt it. To be clear, I'm not questioning whether Kelly is a faithful person, or whether he has spirituality and warmth in him personally. And there's no hate here, the man is the winningest coach in program history and I'm glad for what he did on the field.

The distinction I'm drawing is between personal faith and understanding the institution. Those are two different things. A coach can be privately devout and still not grasp that faith isn't just a nice feature of Notre Dame, it's the organizing principle. It's the reason the place exists. Everything else, including the football program, flows from that.

And that's exactly what the interview confirms to me. A half hour of talking about what Notre Dame is, what makes the job unique, why the place matters, and it never comes up. Not once. Academics and athletics, full stop. At best, he didn't see faith as part of what makes ND special. It's like he views the football program as something that happens to be located at the university, rather than something that's an expression of it.

Freeman gets that distinction instinctively. Kelly, in twelve years, I don't think did. At least not to the level that I think a Notre Dame football coach should. That's all I'm saying.

 

[NotKoon]

If the fortunes of LSU and ND were reversed, BK would never have been seen around South Bend ever again. Now his time at Notre Dame is his only chance for a lasting legacy, so he’s going to do everything he can to paint himself as the guy who saved the Irish from obscurity and laid the foundation for where the program is now. He flamed out too hard and ND is too successful for me to have any hatred for him, but I can still see right through him

 

[TNUtoNotreDame]

I'm just going to put this out there... If ND has a successful season and Freeman were to leave for the NFL...there is NOOO WAY Notre Dame would be interested in bringing Kelly back right?

Hell no… He is not capable of Championship football. Good at building

 

[NDVirginia19]

You guys can skewer me all you want for this take, but if the winningest head coach in program history who left on poor terms wants to come back and make things right and be a positive light for the program and current administration, I don't see how that is a bad thing.

The way he left was dirty. It sucked and it hurt. It was also the best possible outcome for all involved.

As a young(er) generation ND fan, the 2010s were the first real taste of football success I ever got to enjoy. The biggest win in my lifetime before BK showed up was also the same one that got Charlie Weis a ten-year contract extension....a 2005 loss to USC. The guy is scummy, I get it and I don't fault people for holding ill will toward him, but I appreciate what he did taking this program out of the dirt and laying the foundation for what it is currently. This current run doesn't happen without 2017-2021 happening first

This reminds me of the kind of talk my mom would give me after complaining about something and then I would feel really bad about complaining all along.

 

[Irish du Nord]

If the fortunes of LSU and ND were reversed, BK would never have been seen around South Bend ever again. Now his time at Notre Dame is his only chance for a lasting legacy, so he’s going to do everything he can to paint himself as the guy who saved the Irish from obscurity and laid the foundation for where the program is now. He flamed out too hard and ND is too successful for me to have any hatred for him, but I can still see right through him

Well, there will always be the GVSU years…

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

The biggest win in my lifetime before BK showed up was also the same one that got Charlie Weis a ten-year contract extension....a 2005 loss to USC.

Great post, but this part right here hit hard.

 

[Polish Leppy 22]

I listened. What really struck me was him saying not once but twice that this has given him and his wife the time to connect for the first time in 35 years. I get the college coaching schedule is insane, but thought that was a wild lack of self-awareness there since this was a puff piece.

Former players said he was never around in the off-season. If that's true and he wasn't spending time with his family, what was he doing from January through July? It wasn't recruiting.

 

[FU BK]

Former players said he was never around in the off-season. If that's true and he wasn't spending time with his family, what was he doing from January through July? It wasn't recruiting.

Interviewing realtors?

 

[TheProspector]

Well, there will always be the GVSU years…

The interesting thing about his GVSU years is that they’re fairly similar to his ND years. He was just decent there for a pretty long stretch, had a great run of 2 or 3 years at the end, and then parlayed that mini run into CMU (just like he did LSU). Then Chuck Martin/Freeman took over the reins and performed much better than BK at each stop.

 

[laughingirish92]

Driskell went on a bashing fest on BK on Tuesday's IB podcast of what he had to say to Pete and Matt in the morning on the podcast they do if you haven't seen it on youtube

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

Driskell went on a bashing fest on BK on Tuesday's IB podcast of what he had to say to Pete and Matt in the morning on the podcast they do if you haven't seen it on youtube

My favorite thing about Driskell and Kelly is that they're two peas in a pod (narcissists) and both are never to blame. And both have anger issues lol.

 

[402puck]

Now his time at Notre Dame is his only chance for a lasting legacy, so he’s going to do everything he can to paint himself as the guy who saved the Irish from obscurity and laid the foundation for where the program is now.

He won 113 games as the head coach of Notre Dame, more than any other coach in school history. In the 16 seasons and three coaches previous combined (had to add last three seasons of Holtz to equal BK’s win total), the program won 114 games. He literally did save them from obscurity and any other take is revisionist.

I’m not a BK apologist by any means, but I don’t think he has to paint himself in that light when his record already does that for him

 

[NotKoon]

He won 113 games as the head coach of Notre Dame, more than any other coach in school history. In the 16 seasons and three coaches previous combined (had to add last three seasons of Holtz to equal BK’s win total), the program won 114 games. He literally did save them from obscurity and any other take is revisionist.

I’m not a BK apologist by any means, but I don’t think he has to paint himself in that light when his record already does that for him

I’m talking specifically about his framing of the situation. He went from “ND will never win a national championship, I took them as far as anyone ever possibly could.” To “I am an integral piece in ND would never be in a position to win another national championship but for me.”

 

[TheProspector]

He won 113 games as the head coach of Notre Dame, more than any other coach in school history. In the 16 seasons and three coaches previous combined (had to add last three seasons of Holtz to equal BK’s win total), the program won 114 games. He literally did save them from obscurity and any other take is revisionist.

I’m not a BK apologist by any means, but I don’t think he has to paint himself in that light when his record already does that for him

He’s also the losingest coach in ND history. He’s like 8th in win percentage. He’s a coach who it took until year 8 to find consistency and was propped up by playing shitty ACC teams and a USC team that was a revolving door of coaches over his tenure. He pooped his pants in almost every big game of consequence.

He was an above average coach who flopped at LSU, a school where its last three coaches have won championships.

Now that Freeman has already surpassed him and he flamed out at LSU, the same coach who said he couldn’t compete for championships at ND is trying to get back on the ND and Freeman train to salvage whatever is left of his measly legacy. He can go kick rocks as far as I’m concerned.

 

[FU BK]

He’s also the losingest coach in ND history. He’s like 8th in win percentage. He’s a coach who it took until year 8 to find consistency and was propped up by playing shitty ACC teams and a USC team that was a revolving door of coaches over his tenure. He pooped his pants in almost every big game of consequence.

He was an above average coach who flopped at LSU, a school where its last three coaches have won championships.

Now that Freeman has already surpassed him and he flamed out at LSU, the same coach who said he couldn’t compete for championships at ND is trying to get back on the ND and Freeman train to salvage whatever is left of his measly legacy. He can go kick rocks as far as I’m concerned.

Preach on brother!

 

[HouseofPain]

Cant see anything beneficial that he brings to the ND table now.

 

[Bane]

I don't care about BK one way or the other anymore. Time and results have proven which side of the breakup was correct. He did a lot of good for ND but hit a ceiling, him moving on is the best thing that has happened for ND since we hired him in 2010. It's whatever now. If he wants to try and work himself back into the picture to keep his legacy intact, I don't really care.

 

[Irish du Nord]

Cant see anything beneficial that he brings to the ND table now.

I’d be happy with him as a booster!

 

[ND87]

OMG, you guys.
If you can't see BK is simply s mercenary by now, dunno how to help you.
Doesn't mean he didn't do good at ND, just means the motivation is / was always personal uplift.