After over a week of anticipation, the South Bend Tribune is reporting that Brian Kelly will be named as Notre Dame’s next head football coach. Kelly will reportedly make his plans known to his players at Cincinnati’s football banquet tonight. Kelly had been rumored to be the front runner for the position since Monday with reports as early as Tuesday that a deal was imminent.
Earlier in the day today, the Cincinnati media was informed that their access to the Bearcat’s banquet would be restricted further fueling the speculation that Kelly would be headed to Notre Dame.
No further details are available at this point as to when an official announcement will be made, but the SBT’s Eric Hansen tweeted Thursday afternoon that “Casual Friday” was canceled at Notre Dame for tomorrow, suggesting that an announcement could be coming as early as tomorrow.
Stay tuned as more details become available and Welcome to Notre Dame Coach Kelly.
Welcome home Brian Kelly. This is where you were meant to be.
Lets start having some fun!
Interesting stituation with whether or not he should coach Cincy in the Sugar bowl. The final word was no. I’m sure that was the right choice.
But thinking about it brought up some interesting thoughts. Cincy vs Florida. That the ultimate “David vs Goliath” match up. If the bearcats were to win, or even do a “Rocky” and go the distance with the champ, the recruiting possiablities for ND would go through the roof. I, like many in this country, believe hard work and success should be rewarded. Granted he stands to make a bundle by coming to ND,which is reward in it’s self, but playing and possiably winning the Sugar bowl is no small thing. It still will be a game that I am going to watch carefully. I hope Cincy does win.
But the fact is that he has a lot of work to do here and that’s what he is now paid to do.
I also found some of the remarks made by his now previous players somewhat shocking. Kelly worked his butt off to make the Cincinnatti program successfull and respectiable. His former players used terms like lier, backstabber, and money grubber. I would have thought that they would be happy for their coach, or at least greatfull for helping them complete a perfect season. Can you really blame a guy for wanting to advance his career and provide a better life for his family? If it was turned around, the ND players might be upset, but they would also be happy for their coach and show some class. I guess that’s one of the differences between ND and a lot of other schools.
This is a good deal. Lots of good karma. You can feel it.
This Okie is over-excited about coach BK and the Irish to be. In 2 year a get to sit @ the 50yd line in Owen Stadium with my Sooner buddies and watch the Irish bring the wood.
Great hire. Go Irish! Bring the wood! We are ND!
I’m really excited that Swarbrick was able to get this deal done. It’s been a crazy, tiresome week of weightless rumors, and speculation.
Now it’s time to start closing some parents that their kids need a degree from NOTRE DAME.
Go Irish!
Keeping the program “clean”, yes, that’s good. Kneeling in front of Navy — nice. Singing the alma mater — great. Outside of “keeping it clean” (which btw, Bob Davie, Ty, Gerry Faust, and Terry Brennan did), it is all pretty meaningless when you are being abused on the football field by the likes of Syracuse, Navy, and U Conn. And in his private moments, Mr. Weis was anything but classy with a reputation for berating staff and underlings with strings of four letter communications that were usually unnecessary. he was nice when it was important to be. But privately he was known as a jerk unless you were important. He was most definitely NOT a good representative for the University in my opinion — on or off the football field.
Bob Davie was a moron and left the program with a big hole. Bob Davie siad one thing to one person and something to somebody else.
He was a two faced wussy, candy assed little tike.
Charlie may have had issues but he was no Davie and the program was MUCH better than Davie left it.
Period.
As for Kelly—I AM GLAD TO SEE SOMETHING REALLY GOOD COME TO ND!
Let us not forget that Charlie kept the program clean and his players graduated. Furthermore, in wins or losses, the alma mater was sung after the game with the players saluting the student body even in painful losses which can sting.
THe class which ND had when hosting the Service Academies with reference to the thanks they do for our country was stellar.
On bended knee the Irish Football team saluted Navy and the likes of them in wins AND the losses.
Charlie told the media ” I hope the next coach does better than I did”
and he was not bitter. This was far greater than his two predecessors.
Charlie will be fine. I wish him the best. ( I honestly could not say that of the previous two)
That said, Kelly has done great things in previous places. Hopefully, he will be successful. I have faith. We all MUST have faith.
Given a new defensive coordinator with a fresh start, ND could do some good things—maybe even great. Let us not all hope for ALL the marbles at once. I don’t see a Rodriguez dilemma here but I do see a young team–which can be rebuilt. Charlie -unlike the two previous men,left the stables filled as far as I can see.
( If others have different views, I am sure we would all like to hear). The combination could prove to be a great fit.
As for the nay sayers -let us all say we are ND and we ARE classier than most out there. Our fan base is loyal, true, though not perfect =we do have a quality unique to ND. If that sounds snobby that is too bad. I have lived in 5 college towns and the trash heap is very high in other places( and I hear plenty of it in Tressel town of Columbus, Ohio ad nauseum)
I say ALL of this to rally ALL the fans because this IS our Coach–and this is the time to unify and say –we are ND!
( Folks love to hate us and love to love us and some are just plain Jealous!)
Let us as fans and alum and ND Family unite in a realm above the rest of the pack. I have a strong intuitive feeling that ND Football will be there with the rest of them soon and very soon-maybe even higher than that.
GO IRISH!
WE ARE ND!
Welcome Coach Kelly!
It has a nice ring to it!
GO IRISH!
WE ARE ND!
Definitely a good hire and couldn’t be more excited for next yr already!
Apparently he is bringing a lot of his crew. I hope he retains Alford since Florida is apparently trying to hire him.
Ya agreed and I hope he goes out and hires a new def cord cuz the guy he had is in his first yr at cincy. Other than that I say the more guys he can bring with him and mix with some of our good coaches like alford would be great.
GO KELLY GO!!!!!! What an awesome hire this is.
WE ARE ND
THANK GOD is RIGHT!!
Shake down the THUNDER boys…because here come the IRISH!!
Clean house on both sides of the ball! Kelly will DEFINITELY turn this program around immediately! Watch and see….180 next year regardless of Clausen and Tate bolting. Man I can not wait. We are overdue for this boys! The attitude will be evident out of the gate! Blue / Gold game here I come! GO IRISH!!!!!!!!!!
Step One – Unload the dead weight……………………….complete
Step Two – Hire someone that knows how to win…………….complete
Step Three – Find an effective defensive scheme…………….in progress
Step Four – Get the recruits in that should be in………….in progress
Step Five – Keep Harrison Smith off the field……………..let us pray!
amen to that harrison smith is awful i cant count on 100 peoples hands how many times i was yelling at him through the tv to wrap up- im glad we got kelly- that edsall idea would have been ridiculous, i just hope swarbrick at least talked to gruden and skip holtz – lets just hope we can get a good d coordinator, thats my only reservation with kelly is his team doesnt play d
Well done Mr. Swarbrick, now let’s
hope we can land a great DC and finish
strong on recruiting.
I was about to comment, “not to sound overly cynical.” Thanks for the mature reply.
Too late – reflection not allowed. Let me send you a beer to cry in….
I’m satisfied with the decision, but ask me in a year if I’m happy about it. I’ll be damned if I do cartwheels over the hiring of a new coach before he even coaches a game at ND.
WAAAAAA!
Jake,
I hear where you are coming from on that. I am excited, but let’s not forget that most of us (I know I was one of them) were thrilled with what Charlie did in his first two season at ND.
I guess I should have said: Thrilled with most of what he did. None of us were happy about losing 2 years to USC or two consecutive BCS games.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
This is great. Let all Fighting Irish fans join in a mighty cheer to wake up the echos. GO IRISH
WooHoo! We got him!!!
yeaaaaaaaa…..crystal football meet the fighting irish once again…..
Finally.
First, hopefully this is the real deal. This search process has been a difficult. We’re all curious and I know that makes the media want to push gossip, BUT we really like (and need) REAL reporting. It sounds like two sources, independently, verified that Coach Kelly will be the next coach. That, to me, sounds like legitimate reporting. I hope that Coach Kelly authorized the disclosure of the information. The kids at his current school should hear from Coach Kelly before they hear from the media about his future.
Secondly, Coach Kelly has a good background and would do well here. He has been at Cinci for just three years and he’s accumulated a record of 34-6. That is impressive, to say the least. He won at Central Michigan — a perennial doormat till his presence — and he had a remarkable record at Grand Valley, a division 2 school that is now a division 2 power. He’s also done the University of Cincinnati and surrounding community well by insisting that his players graduate. If it’s true that he is coming to South Bend, I am thrilled with the selection.
Finally, a word to the deniers: Notre Dame is not irrelevant. Notre Dame is not a coach’s nightmare. It’s a school that takes seriously the student athlete and it’s a school that demands achievement. We should applaud it.
Teo –
Amen brother! Now we will add some kick ass on the ole gridiron! GO KELLY – GO IRISH!!!!!
Well Stated and Amen!
I like your style and sense of words here.I have not always agreed with you on some posts but you are RIGHT ON in this one!
I live in “buckeye town” and the media here on 1460 AM and 97.1 FM had two talking heads
at 5 P.M. Local time and they said and I quote ” I hate Notre Dame and I hate REALLY hate the Notre Dame fans.”
” Now that Kelly appears to be going there I will have to hate him too!”
THAT is what we live with here in Columbus, Ohio.
( Never mind the shirts that nearly thousands of Buckeye Locals wore when they played Notre Dame which read F— Notre Dame!)
In between the emotion of hate here and the emotion I have for ND as an alum and fan since the age of 4-It has been a whirlwind.
YOUR WORDS TEO hit the target!
Thanks! You Rock! ( At least on this post! LOL)
thanks, thanks. I try, though honestly, as a lifelong fan (since age 4 when my dad told me that every Catholic dreams of attending ND and every Catholic man dreams of playing football at ND) it’s not like I actually have to try to care for ND. It’s in my blood!
Thank GOD.
They certainly made me nervous at times this week with this. This is the guy they needed.