I can’t ever remembering an ND Coach leaving for another job. Usually they’re fired or quit. Who’s next at ND?
Brian Kelly to LSU
- Thread starter eireog
- Start date
That Creole Cooch lures you in - be careful Coach!
My vote goes to Luke Fickell. Also, If Kelly doesn’t take Marcus Freeman with him, he may have made a mistake leaving Cincinnati
With the playoff expanding soon, his chances to make it almost every year at ND is much greater than at LSU. Pretty much guaranteed 10-2 at worst at ND. LSU is looking at annual games vs Texas, OU added to Bama, A&M, Florida etc…
Fickell has got to be first choice. Don’t be surprised if they go after PJ Fleck as well
eireog:
Well, ND hasn't won a title in 33 years so I wouldn't be surprised if they made an offer to Urban Meyer. I utterly loathe Meyer, but we can't rule him out, though hiring him would signal ND had sold its soul for a championship. I prefer Fickell to Freeman, but I don't think ND would err if they asked Freeman to remain as opposed to bringing in someone from the outside.
Ideally, I'd love Nick Saban, but he'll never leave Alabama.
While his name is likely to surface during the search for a successor, I don't want P.J. Fleck. In Fleck's five years, he has not defeated either Michigan or OSU. People have touted Fleck as a genius, but if Fleck all he has been built up to be, he would have won a Big-10 title and at least beat both once. Worse, Fleck lost to U of I this year.
We'll see what happens, but I cannot disguise the fact I am actually pleased Kelly is gone. I was skeptical of his hire in the first place and he never grew on me. While Kelly was the head coach, ND consistently underperformed, owing largely to his undercoaching players. It was actually agonizing to see the amount of precious football talent wasted in games, though I do concede I'd keep Kelly over Davie, Willingham, and Weis.
For those who may want to rebuke me for my words, I went down to the ND-GT game last week and chatted with several classmates. After I had lashed out at Kelly, a friend halted me and reminded me Kelly had won ten or more games in each of the last five years. I responded: "How would Kelly have done against a schedule Parseghian or Holtz faced?"
My friend had no reply.
Hopefully, ND gets this hire right. ND usually gets it right after they have tried everything else.
This is an embarrassingly bad hot take you sound like an old guy that thinks college football hasn’t changed in the last 10 years let alone 50. When Lou Holtz coached ND was the only school that recruited nationally and played on national tv weekly and when Parsehian coached the SEC didn’t have black players, so to answer your question BK would have been fine playing their schedule.
Urbon Meyer covered up that domestic at OSU and then had that gal sitting on his lap at the bar this year...no way ND reaches out to him.
$15 mil per year? Does he have a cure for Covid on top of coaching college football?
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Supposedly each SEC school will be getting $90 million a year under the new tv contract.
ND will elevate Freeman to HC. Good coach and already great recruiter. The name of game is hanging onto recruits.
ND is in a good spot right now and definitely on upward trajectory. Good riddance to Kelly.
Freeman has no head coaching experience but I think he'll be ok. Ryan Day had none either and he's done fine.
ND is in a good spot right now and definitely on upward trajectory. Good riddance to Kelly.
Freeman has no head coaching experience but I think he'll be ok. Ryan Day had none either and he's done fine.
Patrick Fitzgerald....is there a better name to Coach the Fighting Irish then Pat Fitzgerald? Its a stronger name then Brian Kelly! ESPN made a good point....he's taken Northwestern to the limits of what they are realistically going to be able to do with the talent they draw. They won't be National Champion contenders. So he's either content with his current situation for life, or he takes the chance at a team that has the ability and draws the talent to win a National Championship.
I woke up to hearing it is $100m for 7years.
Does anyone else think that we have let this thing called "college athletics" go too far?
It's been clear for a while that our collective priorities are screwed up but this shines a blinding light on it.
A state institution in possibly the most a$$backwards state in the country paying a coach this kind of money because they hunger for prestige ........... it is dumfounding.
Some statistics on the State of Louisiana.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/louisiana
RANKINGS SCORECARD
Does anyone else think that we have let this thing called "college athletics" go too far?
It's been clear for a while that our collective priorities are screwed up but this shines a blinding light on it.
A state institution in possibly the most a$$backwards state in the country paying a coach this kind of money because they hunger for prestige ........... it is dumfounding.
Some statistics on the State of Louisiana.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/louisiana
RANKINGS SCORECARD
- #46 in Health Care
- #48 Education
- #47 Economy
- #47 Infrastructure
- #48 Opportunity
- #42 Fiscal Stability
- #50 Crime & Corrections
- #49 Natural Environment
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These kind of if this/then that comparisons are always tricky. The head coach at the biggest state football or basketball school has been the highest paid employee for over 30 years, so what's changed?
Also, they GENERATE money for the school and therefore the state. Go pick up "The Hundred Yard Lie" by Rick Telander. It fits for today's game and was published back in the olden days (1989). It's always been like this, the numbers are just skewed based on ticket prices and TV money.
@MWittman hits the nail on the head. Brian Kelly is about as gregarious as a shoe and I certainly understand the inherent difficulties in winning in South Bend. Swarbick needs to really think this one through. I love that ND has refused to buckle on the "principles" supposedly held, but a $13B endowment and the risk of irrelevance for a lauded program might make them reconsider their stance.
Urban Meyer has to be choice #1 with Campbell, Fickell or Freeman being distant #2s.
What has changed? Nothing but the dollar amounts which have grown to be absurd.
IMO, we are all nuts for letting coaches be a state's highest paid employee.
Too much money has made it's way into college athletics.
These institutions are addicted to the quest for fame which has led to an out of control arms race.
Telanader's book (classic) should be a must read for anyone who purports to support "college" athletics.
The schools/athletic departments all do tricky things with the inflow of money generated that always seem to come out as it being a remarkable surplus.
The reality is that many of these programs actually operate in the red.
With gambling now available on a wireless phone, I am not naïve to enough to believe this will ever level off.
With history/track record as a guide, unless Notre Dame begins funneling money their way for expansion, the St. Joseph County Jail is not big enough for what the result from an Urban Meyer hire would be. ;-)
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No way the administration and board of this Catholic University looks pasts Meyers issue with looking past the domestic at OSU or his recent bar visit with the young lady who wasn’t his wife that went viral.
Thus the ask for a change in mindset from the administration.
I'm not saying ND goes the direction of Ivy League teams or the service academies, but they are on the path and it happened to those schools. If you aren't moving forward you're backing up.
Cmon. ND has played in 2 of the last 4 playoffs and still might sneak in this year. Over the past 5 years, they are the most successful program in the nation other than Bama, Clemson or OSU. To say that ND is on the path of the service academies is silly.
I didn't say they would, I said could. The big picture needs to be looked at with BK leaving. Not tomorrow, but downstream. In 1950 if you told people the service academies would be irrelevant by 1980 they would have scoffed as well.
I got no problem with what these coaches make. They mean so much to the school and state.
Look what Dabo and Saban have done for their universities and communities.
Look what Dabo and Saban have done for their universities and communities.
Just read the small print on Kelly's contract (and incentives). Looks like he gets an extra $500,000 for every year he doesn't kill somebody.
So you're saying that with BK leaving, ND will be irrelevant by 2051. I guess we wait and see....
The big picture is that the coaching carousel never stops spinning, and money is pretty close to undefeated.
I agree to a point, but that is not just ND, that is any school. Look at former powers FSU, Miami, USC and Texas. Fifteen years ago, did anyone think they would be where they are? I an not an ND guy, but they have figured out how to be relevant for the last 100 years with much of the same obstacles. I think they will figure out how to remain there.
McCaravan:
Oh, I agree.
Nevertheless, worse behavior has been excused and I believe if the demand for Urban from ND or any other school was strong enough, a school would hire him. I say this with the full knowledge the #MeToo movement still occupies a place in the national consciousness.
Absolutely. If it were most other schools I can see them excusing his past actions, but I can’t see a place like ND taking on the moral baggage he comes with. It was brought up on ESPN to the College commentators this morning and they all gave him a hard no based his past actions. And despite my Irish handle and background, I’m not a Domer, but I’ve followed it enough to know they don’t want to side show that comes attached with him. I think Fickell is a slam dunk.
Well, if the last time the Irish hired a head coach away from NU is any measurement of future success....
Watching ND play under Kelly was rarely enjoyable.
How many "signature wins" did Kelly claim while at ND? Did Kelly ever lead a ND team to a meaningful victory over a number-one-ranked team? For those who claim the 2020 OT victory over Clemson, do so at your own risk: Clemson was, well, visibly undermanned. Kelly's bowl record is unimpressive and while he served as the HC, ND got blown out in a dozen games.
Of all the seasons under Kelly, two stand out. In 2014, ND had a fantastic team, which lost to FSU in mid-season. ND folded the tent after and lost four in a row, including one to a 5-7 NU. In 2016, again a team with extraordinary talent, ND went 4-8. What was particularly unsettling about 2016 was the team never improved over the course of the season.
For ND to return to the pinnacle of the collegiate ranks, they must chart a path which includes hiring the right man and breaking the relationship with the ACC.
Kelly may be the winningest coach in ND history, but his teams were consistently undercoached, and the teams routinely underperformed against a soft schedule.
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