Who Will be the Next Coach at Notre Dame

Sure, that would be different. And I think Cincinnati would be the weak entity in that case, because that's acting from spite -- stupid spite at that.

 

I don't use the post-secondary system, and by extension of that the educational mission, to play personal leapfrog every few years, no.

You're not seeing this clearly at all.

 

No doubt since the end of last season that Kelly was preeching to his players to "make the commitment" to the goal of reaching at worst a BCS game and at best BCS bowl championship. As evidence by theiir undefated season the players bought into pitch.

His leaving before the job was complete is how he broke that bond of trust with his players. I just do not see how you can spin it any other way. The players did everything he asked of them. Anthing Coach Kelly says now ring about as true as what Matt Millen tell us in his coolor analysis of the NFL.

Its funny, Kelly was educcated in Catholics schools all his life. One of the core courses in any Catholic colllege is Ethics class. Kelly must not have been paying attention.

 

Slightly different situation, but anybody remember Bill Frieder in 1989 bailing on what turned out to be a national championship team to go to ASU? (IIRC, Michigan wouldn't let him coach the team in the tournament after he took the ASU job).

The solution will eventually have to become a playoff -- like I-AA, Div. II and Div. III have, one that can begin after Thanksgiving, the early rounds can take place before Finals, and the semis/finals played over Christmas break. That's the only way the system can be fixed.

And, in a playoff, UC likely would've been exposed as a team that got to 12-0 largely by playing weak in-conference competition the moment they faced someone good, and Kelly would've been available rather quickly.

 

It's been discussed for more than 25 years, going back to the days when ND, DePaul, Marquette and Dayton were all independents and played each other home-and-home in hoops (and schools like Xavier & SLU were in the old Midwestern Collegiate Conference, in which ND also competed in all sports besides the big two).

That seemed to be the initial point of Conference USA -- to merge those schools together with what was left of the old Metro Conference into some amalgam of a league. However, nearly all of the stronger early CUSA programs (Louisville, Cincy, DePaul, Marquette) are all in the Big East now and CUSA has essentially been downgraded to high mid-major status.

 

No, you aren't. You are expecting Brian Kelly to make a personal and professional sacrifice that nobody - absolutely nobody - in the same situation would make. Not me. Not you. Not anybody on this board or anybody in the coaching profession. This wasn't Bobby Petrino or Lou Holtz leaving an NFL team midseason. The regular season is over. Mission accomplished.

And spare me the tears of the Cincy players. If he had coached the bowl and then left, they'd have found another reason to get pissed. Every time a coach leaves, players find some perceived slight to gripe about.

You are advocating for an ethics system that traps coaches in their own success. That just doesn't seem fair to me. His moral/ethical obligation, like Rich Rodriguez's and Urban Meyer's before him, was to stay until the end of the regular season.

All that being said, is it a scuzzy profession? Absolutely. Coaches are trapped in that they have to whisper sweet nothings to kids and parents about staying four years, because honesty will get them beat in recruiting by the guys willing to lie and stretch the truth. It's a dirty business, but let's not act like Brian Kelly is any worse than anyone else.

 

None of it makes it right. You line of thinking is one of an enabler.

 

Maybe this seems like splitting the baby, but ...

1. I think it's wrong for coaches to make promises they can't keep, or at least parse their words so carefully that they inch their toe right up to the lie line, including but not limited to Brian Kelly if he did so.

2. I think that the system puts them in a position where they have to do so to survive professionally.

But at the same time, let's not pretend this is a high school coach leaving his team before the playoffs. This is a multi-, multi-billion dollar industry. The players are on full scholarships, and at places like Notre Dame and Duke and Northwestern those scholarships are worth more per year than an average sports writer's salary.

This isn't an elementary school teacher walking out mid-year on a second-grade class. This is a business. It's unfortunate that naive young adults and their parents get caught in the ugly cross fire.

 

Does it make it right? No. But think about it from the coach's perspective.

If you were making $25,000 a year at a small newspaper covering preps and a major metro offered you $60,000 a year to work on a pro beat (which has been a dream of yours) and you had to accept the job in a hurry or not accept it at all, what would you do? You would stay at the small shop because of your loyalty? Yeah right. I bet you would.

If Kelly did the loyal thing by sticking it out at Cincy for another month, the ND job might not be there for him when he's done. The problem lies with the NCAA for putting the coaches in these tough situations. Either they stay and miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime or they leave and get called an asshole.

You need to seize opportunity when opportunity comes knocking. You need to crack a few eggs in order to make an omelette.

 

Notre Dame has to be happy about the 180-degree change in narrative, from "No one wants to coach at Notre Dame any more!" to big, bad Notre Dame stealing a BCS-bound coach from his team.

 

As a ND fan, I'm a bit worried that they simply went after the hottest name in the coaching pool rather than going after the guy who they feel fits their program the best.

If Cincy were 8-4 this year, Kelly's name is not even mentioned as a candidate. I think ND may have felt pressure to hire the hottest coach, the guy with all the hype, the guy whose name is going to make a splash in the headlines.

I would've been fine with ND hiring a guy who nobody knew about and hired him because they felt his coaching style is best suited for ND's players and program. Success at one school with one skill set of players means nothing toward having success at another school with a different skill set of players and a different way of doing things.

It kind of seems that it was just assumed from the beginning that Kelly would be the coach and that kind of worries me. It seems like ND just said "he's the hot guy right now, let's get him" rather than taking the time to find a guy who fits the mold of the ND program and players.

That being said, no, I'm not upset that they hired Kelly. Just worried that they did it for the wrong reason.

 

What if a signed contract binding you to that small newspaper until say . . . I dunno, maybe 2013 . . . were in the picture as well?

At least now we now what his word is worth when he gives it.