By Just A. Bartender
Dilworth, NC – Notre Dame has their coach, and he is a good one. Brian Kelly from Cincinnati has taken what he calls his dream job. Quick sidenote, does BC ever get sick of New England catholic boys liking Notre Dame better? Kelly comes to the golden dome with a great record: he went 118-35-2 at Division II Grand Valley State with two national title. He followed that up with a MAC Championship at Central Michigan while going 19-16, and then back to back Big East Championships while going 34-6. This isn’t why he is perfect for this job, it doesn’t matter if he is Irish or this is his dream job. What he is, is someone who gets it. In today’s press conference he made the most important point saying, “This is not a 5 year plan, this is a 5 minute plan.”
He understands the history and he knows his place in that history. If he can turn this around he goes to the Hall of Fame and is mentioned with the greats of all time. There are some serious parallels to the last savior at Notre Dame, when Ara Parseghian took over a terrible program in South Bend. The same can be said for Lou Holtz when he came in and won a title.
In 1953, Frank Leahy retired as the head coach of the Irish due to health reasons. Leahy had won four national titles in 11 years during two stints leading the Irish, his overall record at ND was 87-11-9. He was followed by a lackluster group, Terry Brennan (32-18, including 2-8 in 1956). Joe Kurarich took over in 1959 and went 17-23 over four seasons, then Hugh Devore went 2-7 in 1963. Overall that is 51-48 during the 10 year span. Not good enough, so the Irish went out and finally hired a real college coach with college experience. Parseghian was brought in after compiling a 75-41-2 record at Miami (the cradle of coaches) and Northwestern. Funny how going 500 for the Wildcats preps you for the Notre Dame job.
Parseghian quickly turned the Irish into winners going 9-1 in 1964, and then winning national titles in 1966 and 1973. Returning the Irish to the glory days of Leahy and Knute Rockne. Dan Devine left the Packers to replace Parseghian, Devine went 53-16-1 with a national title. Then Notre Dame got stupid again and hired Cincinnati Moeller High School coach Gerry Faust – because in 1981 when he took over he had supplied Notre Dame with most of their talent. Problem was those kids stopped going to South Bend when he was there. Faust went 30-26-1, yeah it is getting creepy. He was never better than 2 games over 500.
Notre Dame then sacrificed their saintliness by bringing in known college football criminal Lou Holtz, he of the 116-65-5 record at William & Mary, NC State, Arkansas, and Minnesota. Putting each school in the NCAA doghouse. Holtz turned the program going 100-30-2 winning the national title in 1988. Holtz then retired becuase (wink-wink) his wife had throat cancer, when in essence he put the Irish on probation for recruiting violations.
Then came the next dark era of Irish football, an assistant coach, Bob Davie went 35-25. George O’Leary was going to fix this, but he lied on his resume and Notre Dame hired Ty Willingham, who went 21-16, then got fired for being black. So bring in NFL OCoord Fat Charlie Weis, who went 35-27, even with a couple of really good quarterbacks.
So now Brian Kelly is set up to turn this around, it is eerie how close he compares to Parseghian and Holtz coming in to fix this thing.
ND Coach Dark Era Records Record before ND Record at ND
Parseghian 51-48 75-41-2 53-16-1 (2)
Holtz 30-26-1 116-65-5 100-30-2 (1)
Kelly 91-68 171-57-2 ???
If history tells us anything, it would seem that Kelly is not only in the right place at the right time, but times have changed.
College football has changed since Holtz took over in 1986, the day of the independent is gone, which has contributed to the Irish’s fall in the last decade. Reminiscent of the fall of Army and Navy after the war years. Is it possible that Notre Dame is dead and buried. Probably not, but there are a couple of things they need to do.
First they need to join the Big East, being in a conference will not only help recruiting, but will give them more money. Getting a big BCS check only 3 times, whereas the Big Ten schools have split the money from 21 appearences, the SEC 19, the Big 12 14, the Big East 12, and the ACC 12. On top of that kids like playing in a conference and having something to play for when they aren’t undefeated: a conference title and a BCS bid.
Second, they need to get rid of the NBC contract that pays about 60 percent of what the Big Ten teams split each year. The SEC, Big 12, ACC, and Big East end up with a bigger cut of TV money than the Irish. Then throw in the great gate guarantees with conference games plays a role in both of this issues.
Last, hire a great coach, well at least they have taken care of this, bringing in a guy that builds programs to last. My counterpart wrote of this a few weeks ago. “http://barobservations.com/archives/324″
Kelly leaves them in better shape after he is gone.
I do have to admit I hate this hire, I really like Brian Kelly and I really hate Notre Dame and have enjoyed them sucking. It is going to be hard to root against Kelly, but I am sure I will get over it after I talk to a dumb ass Irish fan at the bar later. So grab a Guiness, sit back and watch what happens, I am thinking South Bend is going to get back on the BCS map.