Kelly inherited a program with: Michael Floyd, Harrison Smith, Kyle Rudolph, Theo Riddick, Cierre Wood, Manti Teo, Tyler Eifert, TJ Jones, and Zach Martin on the roster. The team lacked depth but it absolutely had elite or borderline elite high end talent. More than enough talent to beat Tulsa and not get blown out by Navy.
No it didn’t.
Yeah. Richt recruited very well.
Troll’s gonna troll
I can’t believe I’m having this conversation…
I will repeat myself…
Again, not talking about winning the national title. Talking about beating Tulsa at home, and not getting blown out by Navy.
And yet Kelly walked away from this golden roster for the dysfunction in Baton Rouge because... ?
Ridiculous. Richt was a good coach and an elite recruiter, but he just couldn't get over the hump with Saban. You were what, 13, when he was hired? Your revisionist history sucks.
11 years, and yet not a single NY6 bowl win, nor a single playoff victory. You can count the number of times he beat a more talented team on one hand.
I agree. Free Urban from the hate of this unforgiving society we have. The man deserves love and forgiveness. He said he was sorry. FOX forgave him. FOX is like Jesus. Jesus loves and forgives him. We as a fan base should be more like Jesus. He is absolved of his sins in the eyes of the lord, therefore it’s sinful not to also forgive Urban. 😂😂
May you receive all of the blessings for re-watching.
He really hasn’t done much. The DV stuff was his friend not him. At worst he believed his friend as I would. The hot blonde in the pub - he couldn’t do that as ND coach but it’s also not a big deal in this day and age.
I definitely wanted Fickle, but I do think the argument that he would be another Kelly makes some sense.
I don’t agree with 3 minimum but definitely 2. Next year needs to be 9-3 regular season (plus looking good on key positions).
There are places here and there where I disagree (Brandon Joseph is WAY better than you're giving him credit for), but the overall point stands.
Dude can't seem to tackle very well. Maybe I'm not noticing elite coverage skills because of it.
All time post right here. Much respect. *standing ovation*
Facts don't care about my feelings... move him to the elite category then.
After 12 years as HC at ND which included a 4-8 season in Year 7, BK's peak as coach was one where we could consistently count on him to win all the games that we were supposed to win. That isn't easy (perhaps we took it all for granted) and, for that, he has my respect as a head coach. But let's not get it twisted. You could argue that he never beat an elite team. I can think of two such games that might qualify: Oklahoma in 2012 (who turned out to be just good) and Clemson in 2020 (in an empty stadium against their backup QB).
This is where you lose credibility.
Weis may have had some recruiting holes in spots, but the roster he turned over to BK was way better than what Marcus inherited, at least on offense. Again, half our starters on offense this year were Freshmen last year, not to mention a number of rotation guys. These were Rees' guys from his first class, the lack of upperclassmen on offense was the ball being dropped by BK and Long. It's likely one of the reasons BK decided to skip town too, he saw the writing on the wall last year.
Martin was a sophomore that year, TJ Jones a Freshman, Rudolph missed half the year and Sophomore Eifert took over. Wood and Riddick were Sophomores. I’d take our current OL over 2010’s version. Not to mention we won our last 4 games with a Freshman QB. No way Kelly “inherited a lot more talent”.
Freeman has Mayer who edges out Kyle Rudolph, but not by a whole lot. Rudolph is still playing on Sundays 11 years later. That's the only advantage I'd hands down give Freeman, although his Tackles may end up being Zack Martin good.
After that Floyd is far and away better than any WR we have today or any other WR BK recruited during his 12 years here. Riddick and TJ Jones were both young, but both would put up 1,000 yard careers in the future and be major players. Same with Eifert. Cierre Wood, Jonas Gray were good backs. Robert Hughes was a short yards guy and similar to Estime in ways. I would put those guys as comparable to our current backs or better in some cases. A healthy Dayne Crist played decent that year.
The point is, at least offensively, BK inherited a lot more talent and future talent than what he left Freeman, especially at skill positions. Marcus got a lot of youth and inexperience, and it's hard to maintain wins when most of your players on one side of the ball have only been in the program for a year or less. A healthy roster has almost all upperclassmen starting on both sides of the ball. We're seeing a lot of mental mistakes with false starts, ineligible man downfield, and illegal motion penalties, not to mention blown assignments.
Last year, ND won by virtue of having a stable-ish situation at QB with a veteran who had experience and a several starts under his belt, with a receiver corp that wasn't a joke. They also had a few game breakers to get them through the first half of the season in Kyren and Kyle Hamilton when the rest of the units were struggling.
Elston was calling the defense in the Fiesta Bowl.
Sorry but we’re talking about losing to Stanford and Marshal. Two of the worst teams in college football. We have a 3rd year QB, an OL with future NFL players, 3 good running backs, the beat tight end in college football. Yes the WR corp lacks numbers and a game breaker but holy shit, 14 points against Stanford?