Notre Dame Football 2010.......The Brian Kelly Era Begins

• dat dude

  In all fairness, Vegas has the over/under win total for Notre Dame at 7.5. I personally would play the over, but its not outrageous for him to think they will win less than 8 games.
• karen lotz

  

  I'm not sure where he placed the bet, I assume an online bookie, but he said at the time the number was 8. If they win 8 he pushes and gets his money back. I guess his main point was that ND will have to win 9 for him to lose his money, but I just couldn't believe he put $1000 on it. He is not wealthy enough to bet that much money unless he recently came into a lot of money that no one knows about.
• cbus4life

  The whole "lower their academic standards" thing is such a joke.
  
  They haven't sucked because their kids have been too smart. They've sucked because they've made some very poor coaching choices. Simple as that.
  
  With B. Kelly in charge, they'll be just fine.
  
  And i'm looking forward to it.
• karen lotz

  

  cbus4life;450598 wrote:The whole "lower their academic standards" thing is such a joke.
  
  They haven't sucked because their kids have been too smart. They've sucked because they've made some very poor coaching choices. Simple as that.
  
  With B. Kelly in charge, they'll be just fine.
  
  And i'm looking forward to it.

  Yup.
• sjmvsfscs08

  [video=youtubeAN_Kh8U3Qk][/video]
  
  Excuse me while I change my pants..
• karen lotz

  

  http://www.und.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/080710aab.html
  
  Player and Coach interviews from Media Day plus Coach Kelly's press conference.
• dlazz

  This thread is comical to read.
• killer_ewok

  

  dlazz;455855 wrote:This thread is comical to read.

  
  Fuck Rax.
• dlazz

  Seriously though, you all make Brian Kelly sound like he is Jesus. He's a good offensive coach, but defensively his teams are atrocious. Notre Dame is going to do the same thing they've been doing for awhile now:
  
  A. Lose the USC game
  B. Beat the rest of the crappy teams on their schedule
  C. Finish in the top 15
  D. Get blown out by a middle of the road SEC/B10/B12/P10 team in a bowl game
  
  The only real change I can see is that ND's defense could get worse, and their offense slightly better.
• karen lotz

  

  Good read from Bruce Feldman...http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/blog?name=feldman_bruce&id=5476133
  
  Its an Insider article..
  

  Brian Kelly has won big every place he has been. I knew that before he arrived in South Bend, and I'd heard what a great coach he was, but I really didn't grasp why until I started working on a story for the ESPN Magazine college football preview issue. The story chronicles all the things a new head coach keeps -- and doesn't keep -- once he takes on a new job and the sales job he must undertake. The Magazine story is about Kelly's first six months on the job.
  It's obvious to anyone who has read the blog or seen my chats that I am convinced Kelly is the ideal guy to replace Charlie Weis at Notre Dame. Here are six factors that opened my eyes about exactly why Kelly is such a great fit:
  
  1. What Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick said.
  "Successful coaches always have a way they do it," Swarbrick said. "They may change as industry trends change, but there's a fundamental way they approach the game. I don't care whether it's John Wooden, Augie Garrido or whatever sport. It couldn't have been more obvious with Brian. Whether it was his view of percentage of body fat by position and the body types he recruits by position, his views on scheduling so that the athletes are released from their football commitment relatively early in their day, he had a definite way. It wasn't 'Sometimes I've done this or I'd like to try this.' It was 'Here's how I run a football program.'"
  2. He's already been a successful college coach.
  No one will ever doubt how passionate Charlie Weis was about being at Notre Dame, his alma mater. But for all the guy's successes as an NFL assistant, he'd never been a head coach -- and never had been a college coach. It was a completely different animal, and despite the boasts of supposed schematic advantages, the Irish often went onto the field looking unprepared. Kelly knows exactly what he's doing on every phase of his program. So does everyone who works for him. That chemistry and cohesiveness is invaluable, especially at a place as big as Notre Dame. ND legend Ara Parseghian had told Swarbrick that he needed every season he had as a head coach previously before taking over in South Bend.
  Within the context of that, Kelly gets that this is college -- not professional -- football:
  "More than anything else, they [the players he has inherited at ND] wanted to feel like they were in college," he said. "I spent money on the game room. I wanted them to play pool. I wanted them to come over here and watch TV. I spent a lot of money on a training table. I think they felt like to come to this building, it was a job, and it can't be a job. Charlie is who he was. That was his background. He did what he was comfortable with. It's college, and it's gotta feel like college."
  3. He understands the big-picture stuff.
  The view that "We're ND. We're different" often rubs people the wrong way. But honestly, after spending some time on and around the campus talking to people about Notre Dame, it is legitimately different. I'm sure a lot of people won't like to hear that, but the connection to the campus is unique among all the other college I've visited in terms of service and genuine respect for the place. How that mindset meshes with winning more football games -- and, potentially, national titles -- is something I found fascinating.
  I'd heard people talk about this type of thing, but I didn't truly "get it" until I spent some time with Kelly, offensive guard/ND law student Chris Stewart and Carolyn Woo, the dean of the Notre Dame business school.
  Kelly had told me a big challenge for his staff was changing what his new players' priorities were. "So the biggest thing that we've changed is their way of thinking on a day-to-day basis," he explained. "It's that they're here for Notre Dame first and foremost. Not that they're No. 3 on Mel Kiper's Big Board at outside linebacker. That's fine, but that can't be the No. 1 reason you're at Notre Dame."
  I asked if his approach might be different if he were taking over at, say, Wisconsin or Oklahoma?
  "Totally different answer," he says, adding that he'd have been fine with that mentality: "But it's not Wisconsin. It's Notre Dame. So the environment here on a day-to-day basis is different. I'm not saying it's better; it's not worse. Some people say special. That's fine. It's on campus. It's living in the dorms. It's 17 chapels on campus. Therefore, you have to be invested in that. We didn't understand how those principles really affected us when we went to work every day."
  I still didn't buy the correlation until asking Kelly another question about it and he went one step further.
  "How does Navy beat some of the teams that they beat?" he asked. "They beat them on the character that they have, their discipline, their attention to detail, their love for their country, the passion in the way that they play. Notre Dame has a lot of those trappings. We just have to be able to play on those. It can't be just 'I'm going to recruit a bunch of four- and five-star star guys and roll the ball out.' College football doesn't play that way. We have to be able to get our players playing with a sense of pride and a sense of ownership in Notre Dame. That's what we're working on right now."
  
  When Woo met with Kelly a few months ago, she asked the new Irish coach what he wants his players to achieve beyond winning football games.
  "Our students' lives, their sense of who they are, what they can do, and how well prepared they are, is our job," Woo later told me. "It's very important to me that we push ourselves to do the best by our students and to do it 'The Notre Dame Way,' which is winning always the right way. That took [the business school] to No. 1 [in the nation]. We didn't start out at No. 1; Business Week did not do rankings of the undergraduate programs 'til five years ago. We entered the rankings at No. 3. We were very focused on what we needed to do for the students, and that got us where we were."
  Kelly's point is that it's for these reasons -- not in spite of them -- that he's convinced the Irish will win national titles again. One of the by-products of this is Kelly's "Irish Around the Bend" program of community service, which he thought of after being hired.
  "We're taking a more a holistic approach," Stewart said. "Stuff we've never done before. We spend two hours every day. We're giving back. I'm working with first- to third-graders. We have guys working with older kids. We have guys at the boys and girls clubs working with high school-age kids. We talk about leadership and service to the community, how to give back and be good citizens and not just football players. Stuff comes out as we're talking with guys from different backgrounds and what we all bring to the team. It really helps the team come together even more."
  Said Woo: "I think it's up to us to show that we can win this way because of the message to our young people would be that we can't win the right way. Can you imagine what a horrible message that would be to send?"
  4. He understands recruitment and the admissions process.
  Kelly's message to his recruiters when it comes to evaluating prospects in consideration of Notre Dame's admissions process: "If you're on my staff, don't worry about the ACT or SAT or even the GPA. Is he a young man that has got a good enough background that if he was in a competitive environment that he can get the work done and still come to practice and not have his head spinning? OK, I need to find a motivated kid who will bust his ass in the classroom. That's what this is about," Kelly said, adding "You can't have a 100 percent graduation rate or 94 percent of your African-American student-athletes graduate if you take kids that are not prepared. Our profile shrinks, but because we're an independent, we can go coast-to-coast."
  5. He'll shake things up.
  The campus tradition of the Bookstore Basketball Tournament, the one that QB Dayne Crist and two other football players won last year? Sorry, not happening for ND football players any more. "Maybe after we win two national titles, I'll let them do it," Kelly said.
  Says Crist: "A lot of guys were hoping they'd bend on that one, but they didn't."
  6. He just gets Notre Dame.
  "He reflects in his actions an intuitive sense of this place that is remarkable," Swarbrick said of Kelly. "I hate the phrase that 'Someone gets it,' but Brian gets this place and understands it in a way that, frankly, a lot of people who went here may not.
  "You're the new coach at Notre Dame, how do you symbolically start spring football? What do you do? What Brian Kelly did was assemble his entire staff in what may be the most historically significant building on our campus, the log cabin, that is now a replica of where Father Soren first stayed when he got here. And [Kelly] had the president of the university say a private mass for the football staff. That speaks volume on so many levels about understanding the place."
  I'm not going to predict that Kelly will win national titles at Notre Dame. I know he has said he will. Maybe he will. I think too many factors have to line up just so for BCS titles to happen, but I do believe that the Irish will at least consistenly compete for them in the next few years, and that is a radical change from the past 15 years or so.

• karen lotz

  

  dlazz;456147 wrote:D. Get blown out by a middle of the road SEC/B10/B12/P10 team in a bowl game

  
  
  Please name the middle of the road SEC/B10/B12/P10 teams to blow them out. I will spot you Oregon State because that was horrible.
• dlazz

  2003 Gator Bowl: NC State 28, ND 6
  2006 Fiesta Bowl: OSU 34 ND 20
  2007 Sugar Bowl: LSU 41 ND 14
  
  and now I've gotten too lazy to look up more scores. You get the idea.
• karen lotz

  

  OSU was a middle of the road team as was LSU? I assumed you would list those two games. Get real.
• dlazz

  IMO, yes. LSU maybe not. Who knows. What is important to note though, is that these #2/#3 teams were blowing them out in bowl games. Their soft schedule does nothing to prepare them for bowl games...
  
  Nothing is going to change with ND until they join a conference.
• karen lotz

  

  LOL, OSU was a Ryan Hamby dropped pass away from possibly being in the NC game. Also, you consider 14 points a blowout?
  
  Does playing OSU's meatgrinder of a OOC schedule and then Big Ten prepare OSU for bowl games? I remember a couple blowouts at the hands of SEC teams for them. Kevin White did a horrible job with ND's schedule why he was there. If you have paid any attention to the recent additions to ND's schedule, you would know they are getting back to the type of schedule that ND used to play.
• sjmvsfscs08

  ccrunner609;455913 wrote:heard that about Weis also

  
  That is an extremely valid point, and was said in the midst of Willingham's 2002 run too. But if any team hires a guy who just won three Super Bowls as an offensive coordinator, you're going to be excited. If said guy brings in the top recruits too, excitement will naturally increase exponentially.
  
  It became apparent after the fact that Weis did not adjust his coaching to fit college at all, which boded well for his quarterback progression, but that's about it. His flaws were that his strength and conditioning program was nonexistent as was his player development. He treated recruiting like the draft, players were brought in to play their position with modest coaching. It's like "Oh, we need a DT? here's Ian Williams. Go." Plus with the strength and conditioning, even in the offseason which boggles me, the non-"skill" guys didn't get much better. Did you read what they were squatting?!
  
  There is plenty to be excited about with Brian Kelly; he isn't Jesus (yet), but he thus far has demonstrated he gets how to coach college football. Weis...not so much. And Willingham was just a lazy fucker.
• sjmvsfscs08

  dlazz;456184 wrote:Nothing is going to change with ND until they join a conference.

  
  That's a pretty asinine comment. Take away the common teams on the schedule, and you get this:
  
  Stanford......................Minnesota
  Boston College.............Indiana
  Pittsburgh....................Penn State
  Western Michigan.........Eastern Michigan
  Navy............................Wisconsin
  Tulsa...........................Ohio
  Utah............................Iowa
  Army...........................Marshall
  Southern Cal................Miami
  
  
  If neither are bolded, it's a push. Those schedules are about even. Conference my ass.
• vball10set

  ^^^LOL--this has to be the most laughable,idiotic response to a thread (that is equally as laughable and idiotic) that I've read in quite a while--thanks for the chuckle :rolleyes:
• karen lotz

  

  vball10set;456321 wrote:^^^LOL--this has to be the most laughable,idiotic response to a thread (that is equally as laughable and idiotic) that I've read in quite a while--thanks for the chuckle :rolleyes:

  
  This one comes in a close second then.
• dat dude

  vball10set;456321 wrote:^^^LOL--this has to be the most laughable,idiotic response to a thread (that is equally as laughable and idiotic) that I've read in quite a while--thanks for the chuckle :rolleyes:

  
  Why? Seems reasonable to me.
  
  And ND's schedule is only going to get tougher, which is a whole other issue. Have to wonder if they are going to schedule themselves out of playing for a NC. I definitely admire the bravado, though.
• sjmvsfscs08

  vball10set;456321 wrote:^^^LOL--this has to be the most laughable,idiotic response to a thread (that is equally as laughable and idiotic) that I've read in quite a while--thanks for the chuckle :rolleyes:

  
  You're right! What was I thinking?! Notre Dame sucks! Ohio State is the best!
  
  muahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaahahahahaa! GO BUCKEYES!!
  
  Dude seriously go fuck yourself if all you have to bring to the table is that weak response. That's what is laughable.
• karen lotz

  

  ^^^^ You forgot the O-H!!
  
  
  All I wanted was to do this....
  
  
  
  
  
  I-O!!!!
• sjmvsfscs08

  Rankings from Rivals.com
  
  Week by week:
  
  #79 Marshall.............................................#62 Purdue
  #16 Miami (Fl.).........................................#41 Michigan
  #73 Ohio.................................................#47 Michigan State
  #117 Eastern Michigan................................#33 Stanford
  #84 Illinois..................................................#35 Boston College
  #97 Indiana.................................................#14 Pittsburgh
  #11 Wisconsin.............................................#87 Western Michigan
  #62 Purdue................................................#23 Navy
  #76 Minnesota............................................#55 Tulsa
  #19 Penn State...................................#26 Utah
  #8 Iowa.....................................................#95 Army
  #41 Michigan...........................................#12 Southern Cal
  
  But let's stack them up against comparable teams. If they're within ten places I'll call it a push; within five and I'll italicize and and agree maybe one is slightly better than the other.
  
  #117 Eastern Michigan............#95 Army
  #97 Indiana............................#87 Western Michigan
  #84 Illinois...............................#62 Purdue
  #79 Marshall............................#55 Tulsa
  #76 Minnesota.........................#47 Michigan State
  #73 Ohio.................................#41 Michigan
  #62 Purdue..............................#35 Boston College
  #41 Michigan...........................#33 Stanford
  #19 Penn State........................#26 Utah
  #16 Miami (Fl.)........................#23 Navy
  #11 Wisconsin.........................#14 Pittsburgh
  #8 Iowa..................................#12 Southern Cal
  
  I can make a valid argument Notre Dame's schedule is better, go ahead and make one that Ohio State's is better.
• sjmvsfscs08

  haha sorry karen, here I'll set you up:
  
  
  O - H!
• karen lotz

  

  Too late, I'm not feeling it anymore.