OT: Brian Kelly gets the Vote of Confidence

Submitted by stephenrjking on

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick today says Kelly will be coming back next year and formally surrenders the best winning percentage in college football to Michigan forever.*

Good to know that Notre Dame will have to delay cleaning up from the tire fire until the year we play there.

*He didn't actually say this, but it was implied.

 

#NotreDame AD Jack Swarbrick to @espn: "Brian (Kelly) will lead this team out of the tunnel opening day next year.” https://t.co/NbaalLTNL5

— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) October 21, 2016

 

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EGD

October 21st, 2016 at 6:09 PM ^

I agree. I know Kelly is having a rough season this year and he's a dick to his players. But overall he's been pretty successful at ND, and unless they won the Tom Herman sweepstakes there isn't an obvious replacement who'd likely improve on BK's performance. Plus ND has a track record of firing coaches every 4-5 years, so booting Kelly after one bad season on top of that wouldn't make it any easier to land a top candidate.

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snarling wolverine

October 21st, 2016 at 6:44 PM ^

I understand keeping him around because it's a weak market for rising coaches.  But I wouldn't say he's had that successful of a tenure.  Yes, he had the miracle (regular) season in 2012, but in his other six years he's gone 8-5, 8-5, 9-4, 8-5, 10-3 and 2-5.  I don't think we'd be terribly happy with those records, either.

 

 

 

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M-Dog

October 21st, 2016 at 6:11 PM ^

This^.  It's a classic "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you" situation.

Kelly does not have to be a great coach, he just has to be better than who's available to replace him.

If they get rid of him, who are they going to replace him with?  Everybody can't get Herman.  

This year is like like an engineering class with one attractive girl in it  . . . pickings are slim and the competition is fierce.

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stephenrjking

October 21st, 2016 at 6:22 PM ^

This is worthy of serious inquiry in the sport, beyond just ND: Is it better to retain a bad coach because the available candidates are probably the wrong guy?

This is kind of like the question of NFL QBs--every year some team drafts a guy in the first round because they "need a QB," chaining their fortunes to one player for a minimum of three years regardless of how bad he is. Sometimes it appears that they would be better served mining the scrap heap and building the rest of the team.

So, is this a good move? They probably have no shot at Herman, who could be the coach at LSU tomorrow morning if he wanted to, and may get a shot at Texas and USC as well. There don't appear to be any other hot candidates. So, if there's a better chance at the "right guy," it might be better to wait. Michigan, after all, showed real signs of decline in 2013, but gritting our teeth through 2014 turned out to be the right way to get the right guy.

OTOH good coaches can struggle early if they have the wrong players, and ND seems set to take serious recruiting hits. Their recruiting already stands at "good but not great." They are getting dusted by a number of SEC teams and teams like OSU, FSU, and (hopefully consistently) Michigan. USC has also been recruiting better than them. They've had some terrific players, of course, but they also have a lot of "just guys" out there and the damage on the defense is plainly evident. A bad year or two of recruiting and whomever the new guy is will walk in to a bad roster and a serious rebuild. If it's not a Saban/Meyer type (and it probably won't be) that's going to be a tough haul. 

Notre Dame needs a diamond in the rough type guy. Hard to know how they'll find that person.

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blueday

October 21st, 2016 at 5:50 PM ^

Please keep him... Love parents that send their kids to play for this weirdo .. What research did they do to establish the short list visit trip?

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LSAClassOf2000

October 21st, 2016 at 5:50 PM ^

The best thing about the otherwise dreaded Vote Of Confidence, at least if you coach Notre Dame football, is that at least you know your potentially soon-to-be former employer will pay you millions over the span of years to not work. Need to give your retirement account that last oompf? Coach Notre Dame football to some success.....then make them a dumpster fire.

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socalwolverine1

October 21st, 2016 at 5:56 PM ^

Good, that will help crater their elite recruiting going forward, given that the more sought after recruits will see the black cloud of coaching uncertainty and unhappy/frustrated players hanging over ND and stay clear.  

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evenyoubrutus

October 21st, 2016 at 6:10 PM ^

How long is it before Notre Dame actually become irrelevant? It's getting to a point where I'm having a difficult time remembering them being am actually power program. I can't imagine high school kids have any better of a memory.

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M-Dog

October 21st, 2016 at 6:20 PM ^

It's already happened.  

Notre Dame is now like any other program . . . if they are winning, they will get attention.  If they are not, the attention will go to whomever is winning. 

They are no different than tems like Oregon or UCLA or Auburn in that sense.  Gone are the days when they were in the national spotlight no matter how their season was going.

They are just another college football team, only as compelling as their record.

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stephenrjking

October 21st, 2016 at 6:38 PM ^

They still have a national fanbase, as seen by the continuation of the NBC contract that everyone is happy with, and the eagerness of ESPN and CBS to give them a good national slot when they have rights to ND road games. 

But they aren't relevant for the purposes of winning. They've only been significant in football terms three times since that BC loss in '93 by my reckoning: Willingham's hot start (included a win at FSU, remember that?), the Bush Push game that made Weis approximately $485 million for losing a close one, and the flukey national title game run. I suppose you could count a couple of other BCS bowl appearances, most of which were embarrassing blowout losses. 

Since 1993, they have been less competitively relevant than a host of other football teams, including (conservatively, from memory) at least 6 teams from the SEC, 7 from the B1G, 5 or 6 from the Big 12, 4 from the ACC, 4 from the Pac 12, and Boise State. They have, in terms of significant accomplishments, no more achievements in that time frame than schools like Washington State and South Carolina. And they are looking up at programs like TCU. 

Their record isn't very compelling.

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Yooper

October 21st, 2016 at 10:54 PM ^

Urban has basically said publicly that he won't move while his son is in high school. I believe the kid is a senior this year. Why take a worse job? Because he wants another chance to prove how good he is. I don't see him doing that in the pros. ND is the perfect stage for him. Toughing out another year with Kelly for a chance to get Meyer is a good move by ND.

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MGozer

October 22nd, 2016 at 5:19 AM ^

If I wanted to prove how good a football coach I was, I'd probably stay where I'd won 93% of my games (including a national championship), where I'd hand-picked dozens of players and coaches for years to create my ideal program, and where I have the option to fire the university president if I choose.



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MIMark

October 22nd, 2016 at 10:04 AM ^

God only knows how much ND would be willing to pay Meyer. He could most likely increase his salary. And ND has a far easier schedule now that they have backed out of some rivalry games in favor of a comparatively weak ACC schedule. I would say Meyer could get ND to the playoffs with more consistency than at Ohio State.

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Ty Butterfield

October 21st, 2016 at 6:35 PM ^

ND is in a bad spot. They are spending $400 million on luxury suites for the stadium, Jumbotrons, and some other buildings around the stadium. They just sent Weis his last check in December of 2015. Why in the hell did they just sign BK to an extension? How much money are they going to pay people not to coach? Don't get me wrong, I hope they keep BK. A couple of more bad seasons and they are looking at a half empty stadium and declining season ticket sales. Basically they are where Michigan was in 2014, but I think worse off because at least Hoke was able to win a major bowl game; something ND hasn't done in over 20 years. If they do can BK the next coach has to be a home run hire or the football program could be terrible for another 10-15 years. The smartest hire they probably made was O'Leary, I could see him having a solid run there and possibly making ND elite again. Too bad it just wasn't meant to be.

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snarling wolverine

October 21st, 2016 at 7:06 PM ^

We were fortunate in that Richrod and Hoke cratered so badly that there was little justification for keeping them on beyond when we did.  The worst is when you have a coach give you just enough false hope to justify keeping them around for a long time.  We had that with Tommy Amaker in basketball for awhile and ND has had that with Kelly - though this year might possibly be that crater.

 

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michfn2

October 21st, 2016 at 6:55 PM ^

I have to hand it to Swarbrick, he's a master at feeding people bullshit:

"I guess I'd say I wish the perception matched the reality a little better," Swarbrick said. "I understand the perception, but we've got to work to alter that perception because it creates noise and gets in the way. But the reality couldn't be further from it. I'm not going to reveal the nature of the postgame discussion between Brian and the team after Stanford [a loss on Saturday], but that was a discussion between a coach and a team who really care about each other and have a great relationship, and that's what I get to see every day. What we have to do is try to avoid the situation, which creates a different perception because that perception doesn't reflect the reality. We have to figure out how to be better at it."

Translation: Kelly looks like a huge asshat on national television and somehow I have to defend him because he's too big of a moron to do it himself.



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ruthmahner

October 22nd, 2016 at 10:11 AM ^

Brady Hoke seems to be an uncomfortable fit at Oregon, and gosh, he'd probably love to find another head coaching job.  Couldn't be less like BK, except in the inability to actually coach a football team.  Maybe ND could give him a try?

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