After an in-depth, calculated search, the University of Notre Dame has found its new head football coach in Brian Kelly. Let me be the first to welcome NDftB patrons to the BK Lounge. The first person AD Jack Swarbrick talked to and the only one offered the job, Kelly appears more than eager to take over the reins of arguably the toughest coaching gig in the nation. As the former Cincinnati coach put it in his introductory presser today, “There’s a football coach…and then there’s the head football coach at Notre Dame.” Full of motivating one-liners and a deep admiration for Our Lady’s University, Coach Kelly had me about ready to hit somebody.
What took ten days felt like ten years. The media treated the search for the next head coach at the most relevant irrelevant football program in the nation as if there was about to be a primary. Coaching candidates were coming out of the woodworks like Tiger Woods mistresses. Randy Edsall?! What’s more, referenced “sources” included Brian Kelly’s twitter page. I’m glad we can all sit back and laugh about it now, but geez did Joe Schad put me through some needless anxiety. AS the dust settles, ESPN and the other media outlets have continued their wall-to-wall coverage of the best-worst football program, as I have managed to learn everything about Brian Kelly in past few hours except for his first cat’s name. Oh wait, here we go… it was Whiskers (his sister named it). It’s kind of a funny story because, you see, the cat never grew whiskers after a tragic… I digress.
On the other hand, you do have to hand it to the media for their crafty article titles today. Pluck of the Irish. Golden Touch. Irish Eyes. Yeah, those are about as creative as a right-handed pitcher wearing his glove on his left hand. I also have to hand it to ESPN for doing their research and carving up a whopping total of three archived videos of Brian Kelly roaming the sidelines for the Cincinnati Bearcats. My personal favorite is him screaming, “Do your job!” repeatedly to a player on the field. One last media point: has anyone seen a picture of Brian Kelly coaching in action wearing less than four layers of clothing? I realize Cincinnati has its Midwestern roots but winter doesn’t start in September. What about their game last year at Hawaii? Show me that picture.
Now that the chaos has temporarily ended, it is time to reflect, assess, and of course discuss. Notre Dame fans and alums have every reason to be cautiously optimistic. Cautious because no one has consistently won at Notre Dame since Lou Holtz in the early 90s. Optimistic because Brian Kelly has had one (I repeat one) losing season in nineteen as a head football coach. His formula is proven. Cautious because as Kelly said today, “We’re 0-0.” But quickly reminded everyone that his team will head into the 2010 season with one win under their belt – proclaiming it is all but certain that they will win the Spring game, as he turned to give that Irish Catholic wink in Swarbrick’s direction. Optimistic because it is this charisma that has been lacking in South Bend since Holtz. He’s loud, he speaks from the heart, he is a molder of men (in Kelly’s words, “tough gentlemen”), and best of all: he has a deeply-rooted affinity for Notre Dame. His entire career has culminated to this point.
You in?
rabes
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