Author posits a very plausible hypothesis that Jack will give Kelly 2 more years, no matter what, based on all the recent assistants hired (all with multi-year deals). To get rid of Kelly after 2017 they'd have to buy both Kelly and his staff out.
I'd add that the complete rebuilding of the staff can't really be judged after 1 year.
That said, no way Kelly survives back-to-back sub .500 seasons, but I suspect he'll be back if he gets to 8 wins whether we want him back or not.
Link: https://www.18stripes.com/notre-dame-football-brian-kelly-one-last-gasp-2017-tradition/
by extending BK's contract. no way, no how
2)Where there is smoke there is fire. Kelly has been looking to leave ND since 2012. His demeanor, strategy, interest and overall ambition has declined each season and drastically in the last two.
3)There appears to be a high level of disagreement between the admin / AD / Kelly in some form or fashion. The final straw was the forced firing of BVG by someone other than Kelly. That was not a Kelly move at all... period. Neither was moving Longo. I read the Longo move as a slap in the face back to Kelly from the Admin. "You can stay but we are taking your guys out".
4)After BVG firing, Kelly hunkered down and packed it in. He was, by no means, the same guy that came to ND. Totally not his style or at least what seemed to be his style. Further makes me believe he knew he was no longer calling the shots.
5)Such a bad season lead to no offers for Kelly. This tied the hands of the school who wants him gone and Kelly who wants to be gone. I do think Kelly actively looked. The rumors about USC are a total slap in the face, but because of the money and Kelly's inability to win / improve both sides are stuck (Mark Richt).
6)I think the school finally got tired of the looking and decided to turn the tables and reign in Kelly's ego. They said we will not buy you out. Find another job and we will mutually agree to part ways at no cost to either side. Stay here and you can coach the team, but you no longer call the shoots. Hence the entire overhaul of staff with what appears to be guys NOT on the Kelly-tree. To me this is Key. Kelly rarely hired from someone not on his tree / from his past. (exception: Sanford, who never got to do his job).
7)No takers on Kelly, he had to stay. All changes going forward were not his decision. He likely had input but the hire and fire decisions smell of coming from somewhere else. Kelly's ego is entirely too big to make the moves he made. If left to him Quinn would be the OC (another disaster).
8)From the players and coaches running from the dumpster fire, signal to me that there has been a lot more of a power struggling going on behind the scenes than most people would believe.
9)Kelly is praying for a 9 win season so he can get a job offer.
For example Richt wanted to stay at UGA for life. conversely, you make an accurate point that Kelly wants a shot in the NFL. Richt has a totally different personality than Kelly in that he's not nearly as abrasive. Richt was liked; Kelly isn't. We don't need to worry about Kelly keeping ND just good enough to not get fired. He'll either have a good year and leave or have a bad year and get canned.
Until 2016, Kelly totally transformed the program. Not necessarily in the win column (barely above 8-4 avg season). But he made major strides in all aspects of putting the program back on the map. Love or hate him ND is a better program with much better talent than when he got here. What's lacking is there is still not a translation into WINS.
The comparison I am making is that Richt recruited well, had the program in good shape (media spot light) played in bowl games and won for the most part, but couldn't get over the "hump". Most schools would take that.
The problem was UGA aspired to do more, but weren't going to pull one of the biggest coaching names to come in and take over. Therefore they were in the odd position of "who's going to do BETTER for the OVERALL program". That's way for about 3 or 4 years Richt would be "fired" in September and be the best coach ever by Bowl season. Also, UGA has never had a coach the quality of Richt (not the case at ND). When it came to pulling he trigger, UGA couldn't find anyone "better" for the whole program. They considered Smart a "home run" and look what he did. The same to worse. It is year one, but given all the hoopla it's like they thought he'd bring a NC.
I think ND is in the exact same position.
Make sense?
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players, inability to stop offenses - especially ones lead by FR QBs.
Need more?
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Richt was highly successful at UGA when the SEC really was he superior conference (unlike the hype it is now). He happened to coach in that conference at a time when two of the best all timers in the game were dominating it.
Richt's biggest issue was winning the big ones. Most years he had no problem winning the other games. Kelly isn't beating the Northwestern's and Duke's of the world.
The two really aren't in the same class, and Richt wasn't good enough. If that tells you anything.
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The point is ND and UGA are/were in the same position. UGA badly wanted to get rid of Richt years before they did. The problem was, he was doing just good enough not to get fired but not good enough to really matter. On top of that, who were they going to hire that was "better"?
ND has been sitting on that fence the past couple of seasons. Without going 4-8 we would be in the exact same position that UGA was with Richt.
It's very very similar situations, again disregarding this years total meltdown.
Richt did.
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Who gives a shit what Kelly did at GVSU and Richt did at Georgia in 2002, much less torture their records to make phony comparisons?
Richt has always seemed to be a pretty good guy, but he never coached at ND or anywhere else north of Athens, GA. Plus, in UHND parlance, Kelly beat Richt just last year. How the hell can you compare the two (which is silly) and declare their one head-to-head meeting irrelevant?
Georgia gave Richt plenty of chances to find the level of success they wanted and he never quite got there. Then they fired him, and hired a coordinator on the theory that he might have been given the recipe to Saban's secret coaching sauce...just like they hired Richt away from Bobby Bowden 15 years ago.
When ND finally cans Kelly, I'd be willing to bet they don't hire anyone named Harbaugh, Meyer, or Saban. I think they'll get someone who looks an awful lot like Kelly
The tuba players over at Da Nation think he's superior to Kelly, too.
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Richt's UGA program is so far superior to Kelly's program to date in terms of record and quality.
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His tenure-long trend of many close games against far inferior opponents (in terms of recruited talent) and failure to win many big games will continue unless Kelly has a complete philosophy change. I'm optimistic with all the changes he's made; it can't get any worse.
People on this board are convinced 7-5 or 8-4 is the '17 team's fate, but I'm not so sure. It could be anywhere from 6-6 to probably 11-1.
The first thing Kelly has to do to re-invent himself is bury his ego. Second thing is to take responsibility for what the team does. He constantly refers to the team as "they." In all my years of following sports and coaching for 28 years I have never heard of a coach referring to his team as "they.'
He will need the new assistants to motivate this team because he has been terrible for the majority of his coaching tenure. Besides throwing players under a train(forget the bus) and the infamous half time tirade at USC, he has lost all credibility. The team is also lacking at key positions now. Better hope Winbush can take a beating because if he goes down, it is lights out. They should have canned him after Alabama and moved on. Too late now.