Just trying to think if he makes a couple new great hires of assistant coaches and has a great off season preparing the youth even more that go to play this year and gain valuable on the field learning experience. Then I think another false mirage happens and Swarbrick accepts best case a 9-3 regular season in 2017, then after the 2018 Season ND is right back where we are at right now as Kelly gets exposed again greatly like he did this year. Thoughts? I want him gone NOW!
-2017 Football Schedule
S02 TEMPLE
S09 GEORGIA
S16 @ Boston College
S23 @ Michigan State
S30 MIAMI(OH)
O07 @ North Carolina
O21 SOUTHERN CAL
O28 NORTH CAROLINA STATE
N04 WAKE FOREST
N11 @ Miami(FL)
N18 NAVY
N25 @ Stanford
2018 Football Schedule
not official
S01 MICHIGAN
S08 BALL STATE
S22 SYRACUSE
S29 STANFORD
O13 @ Virginia Tech
O20 PITTSBURGH
O27 @ Navy (San Diego)
N03 @ Northwestern
N10 FLORIDA STATE
N17 @ Wake Forest
N24 @ Southern Cal
1 game TBD
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So what's Swarbrick's real reason(s) for sticking with Kelly? Who knows. As I stated elsewhere, we as a board engage in all sorts of speculation and predictions, but the truth is that none of us are on the inside and we know nothing. All we can do is go by what we see, and I think all of us see Kelly will be Kelly in 2017, 2018, 2019, etc. But if I may engage in forecasting based on what we do know so far, the Irish under Kelly are likely to be in the NC conversation every 4-5 years, have a crap season every 6-7, and be somewhat above average the rest of the years.
As far as 2017 schedule all away games will not be easy, Michigan State and Boston College will not have lost enough yet to keep them from being psyched at home. North Carolina, Miami and Stanford will all be tough on road so Kelly will have a true test. Not thinking about 2018 until we get through 2017.
At this point, I would be thrilled with 9-3.
This kind of shit can drag on for years, as the program goes through cycles of doing just well enough to show discernible progress, and then has a bad season that is rife with ready excuses. When the nadir is reached, there are a dearth of attractive coaching candidates, so admin decides to let the coach stay and evaluate next season's progress.
Then the cycle begins again.
And that's the success of the program. We shouldn't be rooting against a good season because we don't like Brian Kelly. Personally, I think if he is retained and they go 9-3, he would be fired. If the three losses come against the good teams then we aren't elite. If they are to mediocre teams then he's losing to teams he shouldn't.
Now if they were to go 10-2, then keeping him was probably the right move. And remember, the team is set up to be better because he recruited some talented players.
I believe they should let him go now, but I'm not going to root against a good season because that's my view. I'd hope to be proven wrong.
My preference is to fire him now. I also agree that if he wins 10 games next year, keeping would have been proven to be the right move.
I also believe this will be the only mulligan season BK gets at ND. The problem is: what counts as a mulligan to JS? I suspect if Kelly is brought back and he wins 9 games, he will certainly be retained. 8 wins? That might even be enough. I think its safe to say that less than 8 wins and he gets the ax. The problem is the 8-9 win range, which is probably good enough for Kelly to keep his job, but just delays the inevitable as he enters yet another year on the hot seat.
to leave. Barring something criminal, ND will never have a better reason to let him go than now, a horrible season, angry fan base, active job search, vacated wins,
BTW...interesting to see your support of him take a nose dive.
They don't want to fire him, if they did he'd be gone.
And of course my support took a nose dive, they went 4-8 against a shit schedule and showed little to no improvement over the course of the season. I think he's a good coach and I supported him for a long time but what happened is what happened.
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I don't even really dislike BK. He's a football coach. They're all generally unlikable in some way.
The ceiling has to be higher, though, and everyone knows it.
I think the bottom tier of acceptability next year is a new years bowl game and we win. If we get to one of those marquee games and get blown out again I would hope he's gone.
We don't have an easy path to the playoff because of the committee's arbitrary "rules," and unfortunately we haven't been quite good enough the last two years to test how the committee would react to a one loss ND team.
10-2 or higher should be the goal but I would be willing to accept 9-3 if it landed us in a New Year's bowl game and we won.
I want him gone too!
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