ND Coaching Changes 2016

[Legacy93]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Excited to welcome Coach Chip Long as our new Offensive Coordinator!<br><br>RELEASE: <a href="https://t.co/RzyrKF7DG7">https://t.co/RzyrKF7DG7</a> <a href="https://t.co/OlymSVCeBf">pic.twitter.com/OlymSVCeBf</a></p>— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/818503235120021504">January 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
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“Chip will be given the full responsibility to call plays in 2017,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. Whoa

 

[Meatloaf]

“Chip will be given the full responsibility to call plays in 2017,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. Whoa.

 

[irishff1014]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Excited to welcome Coach Chip Long as our new Offensive Coordinator!<br><br>RELEASE: <a href="https://t.co/RzyrKF7DG7">https://t.co/RzyrKF7DG7</a> <a href="https://t.co/OlymSVCeBf">pic.twitter.com/OlymSVCeBf</a></p>— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/818503235120021504">January 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
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“Chip will be given the full responsibility to call plays in 2017,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. Whoa

WTF

 

[IrishLion]

"Chip will be given the full responsibility to call plays in 2017."

Don't buy it; BK throwin' shade at Denbrock

 

[ab2cmiller]

Chip given full responsibility, may be totally true, until we are in our first close game and the offense goes three and out.

 

[irish o'phile]

Whoa! I am guessing he does call pkays. Why even say it if it is BS? If your intent was to have Kelly call, you could of said nothing or gave some vague answer about who does what.

 

[Blaise]

I believe he will call plays but it also shocks me more with Denbrock... Kelly wanted to take play calling from him, but with Chip he is giving it back up.. I didn't think Den did a bad job last year

 

[NDohio]

“Chip will be given the full responsibility to call plays in 2017,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. Whoa

Could this be another indication of the power of Kelly being stripped away? More confirmation for the post Bogs shared a while back.

 

[anarin]

I believe he will call plays but it also shocks me more with Denbrock... Kelly wanted to take play calling from him, but with Chip he is giving it back up.. I didn't think Den did a bad job last year

Until you wonder if he was the one calling plays in the hurricane

 

[zelezo vlk]

Until you wonder if he was the one calling plays in the hurricane

He wasn't. Source: speculation

 

[beryirish]

Could this be another indication of the power of Kelly being stripped away? More confirmation for the post Bogs shared a while back.

I don't think this has to do with the power being stripped away from him. Power being stripped away from Kelly is saying "to hell with your friendships with BVG and Longo...they are gone."

This could be Kelly waking up and understanding the current state he is in and where he has put his program and is making changes because what he did in the past isn't working long term.

 

[ulukinatme]

Chip given full responsibility, may be totally true, until we are in our first close game and the offense goes three and out.

That was my thought. This works best for Kelly. If he does take over the play calling again when things get bad, and it fails, he can write it off as it wasn't himself. Hell, he could do that from the start.

 

[OlympiaIrishFan]

The continuation of a coach on the hot seat and the smoldering fire of the program. Hope these assistants can right the ship.

 

[OlympiaIrishFan]

More I think about it the crazier it is. We have bk that looks at other jobs, keeps bad horrible D.C., then takes over the Defense, lightbis shed on how he is as a recruiter via jeter, can't beat a good team -over the last two years we have beaten only one ranked team NAVY. Get shelled once again by a really good team, fires tons of guys "they take other jobs to get away from him", more decommits, the AD has to come out in his defense, oh and ND went 4-8

Flipping awesome.

 

[IrishLax]

If Brian Kelly is going to have no hand in the offense, and we're going to hand the keys to a new offense led by Brandon Wimbush... who has spent two full season years learning and gaining experience in the current system... to a guy with one year of experience coordinating an offense at an AAC school it raises the questions --

How unfathomably stupid was it to retain the HC? And what the hell will Kelly be doing this year?

 

[gkIrish]

If Brian Kelly is going to have no hand in the offense, and we're going to hand the keys to a new offense led by Brandon Wimbush... who has spent two full season years learning and gaining experience in the current system... to a guy with one year of experience coordinating an offense at an AAC school it raises the questions --

How unfathomably stupid was it to retain the HC? And what the hell will Kelly be doing this year?

Also he is a below average game/clock manager who doesn't even know when to go for two or not so he really has an unclear role during games. What positive is he going to add?

 

[irishff1014]

If Brian Kelly is going to have no hand in the offense, and we're going to hand the keys to a new offense led by Brandon Wimbush... who has spent two full season years learning and gaining experience in the current system... to a guy with one year of experience coordinating an offense at an AAC school it raises the questions --

How unfathomably stupid was it to retain the HC? And what the hell will Kelly be doing this year?

I actually have to agree with Lax here.

 

[pkt77242]

If Brian Kelly is going to have no hand in the offense, and we're going to hand the keys to a new offense led by Brandon Wimbush... who has spent two full season years learning and gaining experience in the current system... to a guy with one year of experience coordinating an offense at an AAC school it raises the questions --

How unfathomably stupid was it to retain the HC? And what the hell will Kelly be doing this year?

As to what Kelly will be doing this year, he will be doing what a HC should be doing. That is being involved in all facets of the team (O, D and ST) without running any of them. I think that this is what Kelly should have done years ago.

 

[dublinirish]

As to what Kelly will be doing this year, he will be doing what a HC should be doing. That is being involved in all facets of the team (O, D and ST) without running any of them. I think that this is what Kelly should have done years ago.

he had to step in when his assistants were clearly hauling ass. Molnar, Booker etc

 

[PANDFAN]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I got some clarity today on Chip Long and play-calling. Talked to a source at Memphis who said Long did in fact call plays. Positive news.</p>— Bryan Driskell (@BGI_CoachD) <a href="https://twitter.com/BGI_CoachD/status/818540697712205824">January 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
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[tussin]

Besides BK, which coaches are coming back next year? I can think of Lyght and Denson...

 

[ulukinatme]

If Brian Kelly is going to have no hand in the offense, and we're going to hand the keys to a new offense led by Brandon Wimbush... who has spent two full season years learning and gaining experience in the current system... to a guy with one year of experience coordinating an offense at an AAC school it raises the questions --

How unfathomably stupid was it to retain the HC? And what the hell will Kelly be doing this year?

BK has become Bobbah Bowden?

 

[IrishLax]

Besides BK, which coaches are coming back next year? I can think of Lyght and Denson...

plus Hiestand, Elston.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

More and more it is sounding that the original plan wasn't to retain Kelly.

So what we may be seeing is 'a work in progress/process.'

As far as Kelly waking up. There is no waking up to what happened at ND in just over two short years. Anyone who could put the whole thing down the shitter in that short of a time frame, well, waking up just isn't the right analogy.

To answer your questions LAX, it's all good if we take on a young coach that needs a little more support his first couple of years.

I said privately to people last fall after it was obvious that Kelly was the impediment, not just everyone else, that we should just fire Kelly, and hire Sanford. This is actually better, because Sanford will have to move forward, grow a little bit, and if he does come back (not sure I would want to, if I were him) he has a decent staff in place.

Everybody talks about how tough it is to coach at ND. Why wouldn't success require turning more of the X's and O's over to your coordinators? There is not the time or energy for anyone to be a micro manager of each assistant coach at a championship iteration of this level of a college program.

And, if you look at all the good things that Sanford did, his true genius was making global strategic changes to take care of problems, (prepping Zaire and Kizer, etc.) That is what a championship coach at ND needs to do!

 

[ND Fan Vancouver]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I got some clarity today on Chip Long and play-calling. Talked to a source at Memphis who said Long did in fact call plays. Positive news.</p>— Bryan Driskell (@BGI_CoachD) <a href="https://twitter.com/BGI_CoachD/status/818540697712205824">January 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Nice. Here's what I honestly think and a lot of you will disagree with me. I think Brian Kelly's biggest faults are when he gets too involved with the offense and doesn't stick to what works ie, running the ball (especially in obvious running situations), chipping away and getting the ball to the TE to set up down field throws. I do, however, think Kelly is great with his players and does a great job as program director and oversee'er of all things ND. He runs the football program with ND type integrity. I think after this terrible season he finally got real and decided to give up power on offense and hire a solid OC and take more of an oversee'er approach to coaching because what he was doing clearly was not working. He hired a DC who runs scheme that will fit our personnel and an OC that's had great success with half the talent. I expect ND to field a good team in '17. My only concerns are along the DL.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

plus Hiestand, Elston.

Who exactly said Gilmore was fired?

 

[IrishLax]

Who exactly said Gilmore was fired?

I'm like 90% sure he's already been let go even if not officially announced.

 

[dublinirish]

Nice. Here's what I honestly think and a lot of you will disagree with me. I think Brian Kelly's biggest faults are when he gets too involved with the offense and doesn't stick to what works ie, running the ball (especially in obvious running situations), chipping away and getting the ball to the TE to set up down field throws. I do, however, think Kelly is great with his players and does a great job as program director and oversee'er of all things ND. He runs the football program with ND type integrity. I think after this terrible season he finally got real and decided to give up power on offense and hire a solid OC and take more of an oversee'er approach to coaching because what he was doing clearly was not working. He hired a DC who runs scheme that will fit our personnel and an OC that's had great success with half the talent. I expect ND to field a good team in '17. My only concerns are along the DL.

Playcalling always reflects a coach's personality. BK's personality is brash and this is reflected in his playcalling, he wants big plays and the easiest way to go about this is in the passing game. he does not have the character to be a ball control type coach and when he's tries this and the pressure comes on he just reverts to type.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

I'm like 90% sure he's already been let go even if not officially announced.

I am not so sure.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

Bogs, you are one of the best posters here and I believe all the stuff you ever posted to be pretty accurate. My question however, if there is this behind the scenes shadow group running things out of the spotlight, how the hell did they let things deteriorate to this point? Or are these people just finally fed up and flexing some influence after some bad down years? I'm genuinely curious, because as a more casual fan than most occurred you guys, I can't figure things out.