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Kelly Selection A Ten Strike For Swarbrick And ND;

New Coach Wows Media, Alumni, Students And Fans

OK, so it’s Brian Kelly.

The selection of the very successful Cincinnati coach to replace Charlie Weis was a no brainer for most Irish fans, but AD Jack Swarbrick played it like a lawyer, making the world think that there was a real search going on while Kelly was his guy from the start because he knew the new head coach would crawl to South Bend for the job, considering his Irish Catholic upbringing in the Boston area. Swarbrick built some suspense by leaking that he would talk to Urban Meyer at Florida and Bobby Stoops at Oklahoma, but there was no way they would leave posts where a recruit’s grades aren’t very important and you can do practically anything to win games. 

No way would Swarbrick go the coordinator route after the failures of Bob Davie and Weis. So, he quickly signed the energetic Kelly, whose credentials speak for themselves:

• 34-6 the last three years at Cincinnati with mediocre talent
• Back-to-back Big East titles
• Two straight BCS berths
• An undefeated 12-0 team this year that is ranked #4 in the country

Fighting Irish fans are starving for a coach who can erase the sour taste of Weis’ 16-21 record for the last three years and Kelly says he is the man for job after nineteen years of coaching at Assumption, Grand Valley State, Central Michigan and Cincinnati. Along the way, he picked up numerous Coach-Of-The-Year awards. Obviously Brian Kelly knows how to coach college players, something Weis never mastered during his five year apprenticeship at Notre Dame.

First Press Conference A Big Hit

Quite simply, Kelly wowed all the necessary publics at his introductory press conference – media, alumni, students and long-time ND fans. Like many of us seniors, he recalled watching ND football highlights with Lindsay Nelson narrating (“And now as the action moves to the third quarter…”). He underscored his Irish Catholic background and talked about possibly becoming a politician at an early age and there’s no doubt that he can talk without a script. Most observers thought Weis’ teams came on the field without much spirit and Kelly immediately addressed that, “You have to have young men who are passionate about playing the game – I’m looking for that passion,” Kelly said while acknowledging Notre Dame’s commitment to academics. “Excellence is the mission at Notre Dame and I welcome that.”

Kelly says he will be concentrating on RKGs – R Kind of Guys.

While Weis’ recruiting classes were highly ranked, the players did not show steady improvement, especially the offensive line that has struggled for two years. Kelly made a public promise to Notre Dame’s recruits, “I guarantee my players there will be player development, both physically and mentally.”

Kelly, who is really psyched with his five-year contract (2.5 million a year which doubled his salary) and dream job, added “When I refer to the challenge, it’s strictly getting to that high bar that’s been set at Notre Dame – we’ve got challenges, and we’ve gotta go to work on these right away. We don’t have a five-year plan. This is a five-minute plan.”

Media Likes First Impressions

Reporters covering teams certainly are influenced in their writing by first impressions and that colors their on-going coverage. Weis came across as a cocky, arrogant guy who thought he had all the answers. When it became obvious he didn’t and the losses started to pile up, reporters jumped on him and the blood in the water attracted other sharks who also harmed Notre Dame’s reputation in the process. 

In contrast, a smiling Brian Kelly came across as a nice guy - confident, organized and focused on coaching championship teams. He’s well aware that he faces problems in 2010 with Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate, a unanimous All-American receiver, turning pro. In addition, Kelly inherits one of the worst defenses in the country. The new coach pointed out that you win as a team – offense, defense and special teams.   Last year, Weis had a very good offense, terrible defense and a lack-luster special teams unit. When you’re missing two of the three necessary elements, you’re in big trouble. Kelly emphasized that you win or lose as a team and there’s plenty of work to be done to bring this Notre Dame team up to standard. He pointed out that he started out as a defensive coach before developing the explosive no-huddle spread offense that kept the scoreboard spinning at Cincinnati. Actually, the Bearcats had a more productive offense than ND this season, so there shouldn’t be any let down in Irish scoring.

Major Coaching Staff Changes In Works

ND fans are probably most interested in Kelly’s choice of a defensive coordinator since the sieve-like ND defense cost the 2009 team a shot at an unbeaten record and a BCS bowl bid. In South Bend, the pundits think that he’ll call on an old friend, Grand Valley State head coach Chuck Martin. He handled defenses for Kelly at GVS before the new Irish coach left for Central Michigan in 2004. Martin, a two-time NCAA Division II Coach-Of-The-Year, is 74-7 since becoming head coach. This includes a record amazing 40-game winning streak. 

Of concern to many Irish fans is that recruiting coordinator and receivers coach Rob Ianelo, has left for the head coaching job at Akron. Kelly’s first of many primary tasks will be to assure committed recruits, and that may be harder to do without Ianelo’s input, several of the current assistants may join Ianelo in Akron, including quarterback coach Ron Paulus, who has been tutoring Dayne Crist, who now is the first string QB since Clausen will be playing on Sundays.   Defensive coordinator Corwin Brown is angling for the head coaching job at the University of Buffalo and most ND fans hope his cohort John Tenuta takes his blitzing schemes as far away from South Bend as possible. Kelly needs to bring in as many of his guys as necessary so that there is chemistry among the coaches, something sadly missing the past five years.

Kelly Has Presence On The Big Stage

The gregarious Kelly actually seemed to be enjoying the press conference while Weis always looked as though he was prepping for a colonoscopy. He was smart enough to refer to Notre Dame’s coaching legacy, dropping the names of Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz during his remarks. He still is getting used to being in the major leagues, though, because he mistakenly sat down in his secretary’s office until he was ushered in to the large head coach’s suite. Cincinnati’s facilities are notorious for being outmoded and Kelly was lobbying for a new stadium there.

ND Fans Excited About Football Again

So, the slate is clean and the hot stove league will really be going full steam this winter. If you haven’t seen the video of his first press conference, be sure to go to Notre Dame’s football web site and see a real engaging winner in action. Then you’ll be drinking green Kool Aid like the rest of us. Kelly’s selection and early interviews have created a buzz we haven’t heard in several years. It’s great to hear again that ND can be a winner.  

Kelly sure as heck fits the profile of a winning Notre Dame Coach – Irish Catholic with an over-all 171-57-2 record (.747) as a Head Coach, coming off an undefeated season where he was named Coach-Of-The-Year. Even his daughter is named Grace and he points out the name is no accident. 

And, he says all the right things, “Excellence in academics is a mission at Notre Dame and I welcome that.   I am ready to move the football program forward.” Swarbrick and Fr. Jenkins had to smile when their new coach said “Nobody does it like Notre Dame.”

Go Irish!

Paul “Splinters’ Fullmer

PSFUL@aol.com