Kelly’s Team Meeting Two Minutes Long
November 30th, 2021 at 3:43 PM ^
Not sure what else anyone expected.
November 30th, 2021 at 5:03 PM ^
Not even his adoring mother thinks that Brian Kelly has great social skills.
November 30th, 2021 at 5:21 PM ^
Correction "...any social skills."
November 30th, 2021 at 5:57 PM ^
Ironically he apparently has amazing social skills--and verbal communication skills in particular--even among the high level salesmen that are head coaches at football powerhouses. I just read an article about this in The Athletic this morning (paywalled):
https://theathletic.com/2841280/2021/09/22/why-brian-kelly-wins-on-the-verge-of-passing-knute-rockne-past-and-present-assistants-try-to-unlock-the-mystery/
Kelly looks like a total jerk on the field during games and it seems clear and obvious that he is one but the article includes interviews with several of his past/present assistant coaches who rave about Kelly's leadership and willingness to listen and communicate with them and his teams.
Obviously this doesn't jibe with 'breaking up' with his players via text last night or meeting with them for 2 minutes this morning and walking out of the room without taking any questions.
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November 30th, 2021 at 6:37 PM ^
That’s the same face he makes when it takes him less than two minutes to pull his own pud. What a turd.
November 30th, 2021 at 6:08 PM ^
Good stuff; thanks for sharing it. Did not know a great many of these things! Recommended.
November 30th, 2021 at 6:29 PM ^
Unfortunately with the high profile nature of the profession, there's no good way to "break-up". You can't tell the team in person before the media breaks the story so it's still better to let them know via text immediately before they hear about it on the news (how many times do you hear guys say they found out something like this on the news - at least it came from him even if via text).
November 30th, 2021 at 6:48 PM ^
Agree, but it wouldn’t hurt to spend some time with players and let them know how proud he is and wish them well in their bowl game.
2 minutes is a big GFYS
November 30th, 2021 at 6:29 PM ^
Not sure what else anyone expected.
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I expected more. Is it too much to ask for Kelly to sit down one on one with each of the players in a coffee shop somewhere, and give them the "it's not you, it's me" routine? I mean, you've got to show some class Brian Kelly, that's the least you can do.
November 30th, 2021 at 6:53 PM ^
Exactly. What is there really to say. I’ve been offered a job that pays 4 times as much as I make here. It’s a huge opportunity and I’ve accepted it. Good luck and good by
November 30th, 2021 at 3:43 PM ^
Shocking I tell you, just shocking!
/s - just in case
November 30th, 2021 at 6:35 PM ^
Friend of the family was a grad assistant for Kelly at Grand Valley. Says the man was a selfish asshole. Always nice when success doesn't change someone.
/s - just in case.
November 30th, 2021 at 3:44 PM ^
My initial response is “what a jerk”. But I am not really sure there is anything he can say. He is deserting a possible playoff team.
I do hope the players got more time from the AD and whoever the interim coach is, if I was a player my questions would be for them.
November 30th, 2021 at 3:50 PM ^
when i quit more job to start my own gig several years ago, my meeting with my boss was a lot longer than two minutes. i think he owed the players a helluva lot more than that. how about discussion of the transition to the interim guy and possibly a bit of a rah rah speech that there is still a lot to play for.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:00 PM ^
You are talking about two different things. Your example would be akin to Kelly's meeting with the ND AD, which we don't know anything about, not his meeting with his team.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
I disagree, Kelly owed them more time. He chose to bring those players to ND's campus. He owes it to them to give them a bit more considering the relationship of a coach to players.
P.S. this is the same purple faced guy who claimed it is always about staying because of close relationships.....in Cincinnati.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:43 PM ^
How long does it take to say "I'm gettin paid! See ya."?
Brian Kelly wasn't being lured back to his alma mater to right the ship. He wasn't being courted by a more prestigious program. He was offered a shit ton of money to leave a good situation and he said yes. I'm not sure what more is owed when that is the reason. From a players perspective, I'm not sure I would want to hear more. Congrat's go get your money coach, moving on.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:56 PM ^
Right. BK got paid, nothing wrong with that. Brady Hoke did the same thing to SDSU Players when he "walked" to Ann Arbor.
If you quit a job, that is it. What more is there to say? We do not know what transpired with the AD. Maybe the AD told BK only to say as little as possible.
Capitalism is a good thing. Good for BK. LSU is my 2nd favorite team so now I can root for him.
November 30th, 2021 at 5:28 PM ^
Brady Hoke did the same thing to SDSU Players when he "walked" to Ann Arbor.
I mean, I guess so, in the sense that he left a coaching gig where he was succeeding to go to a different coaching gig for a lot more money.
But Hoke was at Michigan as an assistant for 7 years under Carr - longer than any other school - and had spent the majority of his coaching career in the midwest up to that point. He was an avowed lover of Michigan and going to UM from SDSU is kind of a no-brainer.
Going from notre dame to LSU is less of a no-brainer. Kelly has no ties to LSU. He has coached in the midwest for the last 34 years. He's not going from a G5 to P5, but a comparably (or perhaps even less) prestigious institution. This is all about the money.
November 30th, 2021 at 6:37 PM ^
It wasn't about money. His deal was in the ballpark of Mel Tuckers. He could have gotten ND to match in less time than he talked to the team if it was about money.
Read Swarbrick's comments. He wanted a new challenge. He wants to see if he can be in the Saban / Meyer pantheon and that wasn't going to happen at ND.
I would argue he did everyone at ND a favor by not spelling that out crystal clear. Coach, why are you leaving? Sorry guys, I love you but I can't win multiple national titles here for reasons x, y, z.
November 30th, 2021 at 5:09 PM ^
[commented on the wrong level]
November 30th, 2021 at 4:15 PM ^
Yeah, that all sounds like good stuff he should talk about. But if I'm the AD, I don't think I let him speak with the team.
Kelly: 'I quit'
AD: 'Well, that sucks. Anything I can do to keep you?'
Kelly: 'Nope. I'll go tell the team and be on my way.'
AD: 'Nope. You're bailing on a possible playoff team one week out. And you're no longer employed here, so get the fuck out.'
November 30th, 2021 at 4:23 PM ^
My thoughts as well. He may have only been given 2 minutes to address the team, with an approved script. Not being an apologist for BK, he's done plenty to earn the 'asshat' moniker, but we just aren't privy to the data behind the fact.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:42 PM ^
Particularly in an era with a much easier transfer process. If I'm the AD, I want him talking to my players as little as possible on his way out the door.
November 30th, 2021 at 5:49 PM ^
You make a good point.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:28 PM ^
Exactly. I imagine that is how it went when Bill Frieder told Bo he was leaving to go coach at Arizona State before the 1989 NCAA tournament.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:34 PM ^
Haha!!!
Freider: 'I quit, Arizona is gonna pay me, but I'll coach through the tournament.'
Bo: 'You aren't quitting - you're fired! Get the fuck out. SECURITY! Get this guy out of my building!'
November 30th, 2021 at 4:51 PM ^
Me: Uh, I wasn't planning to go to Atlanta, but if Frieder's gone, then I like this team a lot more than one should like a 3-seed.
November 30th, 2021 at 5:34 PM ^
Kelly should have just handed Sawbruck an envelope and walked away just like How Sawbruck ended the contract to play us. Except Kelly's note would just say "I quit" with a child like drawing of him holding a bag in each hand with dollar signs on them.
November 30th, 2021 at 6:22 PM ^
I was thinking a bag in one hand and a beignet in the other with a powdered sugar moustache.
November 30th, 2021 at 5:57 PM ^
This should be one more reason why ND has no business being invited to the playoff.
November 30th, 2021 at 6:30 PM ^
AD: "Wait. We defended your ass when you killed the grad student.."
Kelly: "uh huh"
AD: "...AND the young woman who killed herself when you tried to sweep the sexual abuse under the rug.."
Kelly: "right"
AD: "So?"
Kelly: "Alright, thanks. Good luck."
November 30th, 2021 at 6:51 PM ^
Ah, the “a Michigan man will coach Michigan” approach. I like it.
November 30th, 2021 at 3:53 PM ^
I hope the players didn’t get shit. Fuck Notre Dame and the players. They picked that shit school.
November 30th, 2021 at 3:57 PM ^
It's not a "shit" school by any objective standard.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:20 PM ^
School is good academically, the town and area suuuuccccckkkkksssss. I grew up on in a rural area and I would never good to South Bend, that place just sucks
November 30th, 2021 at 5:22 PM ^
it always blows my mind that recruits would choose to go to college in South Bend. South Bend is a shithole.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:02 PM ^
Well put. They chose to play for that guy
November 30th, 2021 at 4:22 PM ^
Notre Dame, as an academic institution, is anything but this, so the broad disparagement is certainly not necessary. As for Brian Kelly, given the way that this broke, I have to think that by the time this meeting took place, the players probably had - via indirect means - about as much explanation as they were going to get from Kelly and that the meeting was perfunctory and hollow as a result.
I do think that they deserve to know, from Kelly's direct superior - Jack Swarbrick - what exactly happened and why they were unable to keep him other than the obvious fact which is the whopping great sum of cash offered to Kelly by LSU. That is to say, I would want to know - if it were me - if they even made an offer / effort and what precisely that was if they did.
November 30th, 2021 at 6:52 PM ^
I was listening to the Athletic podcast today on this subject and one of the guys was pretty plugged in. Apparently BK has been asking for a chef for the team, a dedicated football training table, and facilities upgrades. They weren't giving in to his demands and apparently BK has to beg and plead to get what he wants at Notre Dame. It's a lot easier to leave when you're not that happy.
November 30th, 2021 at 7:15 PM ^
Facilities upgrades are one thing considering the capital outlay but when I hear this type of 'griping' I feel like the HC can just...you know take $100,000 out of his ol' pocket book and pay for a fucking Team Chef if he wants it that bad. This just screams PR spin to me.
November 30th, 2021 at 3:55 PM ^
From what I have heard about ND recruiting, Kelly doesn't get as involved, so perhaps he doesn't feel that connection with the players as someone who sat in their living rooms and convinced them to commit to Notre Dame.
But if that is true, that says a lot about Kelly that he doesn't build that connection with players. It says even less about him that he's not man enough to face a difficult situation (telling your team mid-season that you are bailing). It can't be easy to do that, but a leader of men has to have that intangible IMO.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:01 PM ^
I've never gotten the impression that Kelly is big on the "second father" aspect of coaching. It's a job, he shows up and does it very well, that's as far as it goes. This reinforces that quite a bit.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:05 PM ^
He also killed a guy. What do you expect from that asshole.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:09 PM ^
Rumor mill says he was in a recruits living room when the news broke on Twitter that he was leaving for LSU. Don't know if it's true, but I cannot imagine that a head coach doesn't get seriously involved with selling and closing his program to a 'croot - especially the top flight guys.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:18 PM ^
I think you are referring to the story about one of his assistants. Pretty sure that he was not talking to recruits in his capacity as ND coach late yesterday.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:19 PM ^
Thanks for clearing that up!
November 30th, 2021 at 6:27 PM ^
You should always go with your first instinct.
November 30th, 2021 at 3:45 PM ^
From UTL I till now, I have seen little in Kelly's persona to convince me that he is a warm and caring person.