The undersigned is on record as predicting that The next great coach in college tackle football will be Brian Kelly Note that that prediction was made right after Kelly completed his final season at Central Michigan. Man. I dunno what I was drinking that New Year's Day 2007 but it produced an epiphany. Sheesh, that was a good 'un.

Kelly is a good 'un, too, an extremely good one. But I did not predict extreme goodness, I predicted greatness. When that prediction was made almost twelve years ago Kelly had just been hired by Cincinnati where he coached three full seasons, going 10-3, 11-3 and 12-0. Which made me look like a savant for once instead of an idiot but even in his last year at Cincy, the 12-0 year when Cincy finished the regular season ranked fourth in the country, note that fourth best is not best. I am sure you noted that. Fourth best is extreme goodness but not greatness and Cincinnati went on to lay an egg in the Sugar Bowl against #5 Florida. Note: Just as he had left CMU after their regular season but before their bowl game for Cincinnati, Kelly left Cincinnati after their perfect regular season and before their bowl game for Notre Dame. The Kelly-less "Bearcats" got mauled by the"Gators" who just ate 'em alive, 51-24. Florida led 30-3 at the half.

Note the similarities among Kelly's 2009 Cincinnati team, his 2012 Notre Dame team, and his 2018 Notre Dame team. 2009 Cincy: 4th ranked before bowl, considered overrated, blown out in bowl, trailed 30-3 at half (sans Kelly), final rank, 8th; 2012 ND: #1 ranked before bowl, considered overrated, blown out in bowl, trailed 28-0 at half, final rank, 4th; 2018 ND: 3rd ranked (season incomplete)...Are they considered overrated?...No, I don't think so but I and most others do not think they are national champions in-waiting. When they make the college football playoff this year if they get blown out again then the symmetry will have been perfect.

There is another similarity among those three extremely good Brian Kelly coached teams, a factor in fact common to every Brian Kelly coached team, twenty-nine of them, the factor in the opinion of the undersigned savant--Or idiot!--that explains the near brushes with greatness: No great quarterback has ever played for Brian Kelly.

That is remarkable! Notre Dame used to be QB U! Four of Notre Dame's seven Heisman Trophy winners have been quarterbacks. Not among Heisman winners are these All-American ND QB's: Jimmy Clausen, Brady Quinn, Rick Mirer, Tony Rice, Tom Clements, Joe Montana (not even an AA!), Joe Theismann, Terry Hanratty, Daryle Lamonica. The last pre-Kelly Notre Dame team, 2009, Jimmy Clausen was an All-American quarterback. No "Irish" QB under Brian Kelly has ever been named All-American much less won a Heisman. Further, Kelly has not been able to decide on a QB at Notre Dame! In his nine seasons in South Bend, including this season, Kelly has rotated two quarterbacks as starters in seven seasons. Here's the list:

2010 Tommy Rees-Everett Golson
2011 Tommy Rees-Dayne Crist
2012 (The Alabama blow out year) Tommy Rees-Everett Golson
2013 Tommy Rees
2014 Everett Golson-Malik Zaire
2015 DeShone Kizer-Malik Zaire
2016 (Notre Dame cratered to 4-8) DeShone Kizer
2017 Brandon Wimbush-Ian Book
2018 Brandon Wimbush-Ian Book

Remarkable! How can you go nine years at Notre Dame and never recruit or develop a great quarterback? C'mon. In Charlie Weis' five unhappy years there he had three All-Americans at QB. C'mon, man.

Kelly's quarterbacks in four years at Cincinnati, Dustin Grutza, Ben Mauk, Zach Collaros, Tony Pike, and Brendon Kay, were better than he has coached in nine years at Notre Dame I mean come on man.

So. Therefore. Brian Kelly, no doubt just to spite me and deny me savant status, has never achieved coaching greatness because he has spent nine frigging years at Notre Dame playing musical quarterbacks. The bitch.

I've been tracking the Notre Dame du Lac-Texas du Austin tackle football game. Two fine coaches, Brian Kelly and Charlie Strong. Strong has had a tough go of it at Texas. I think it's his third year and he has gotten rid of a number of players in his time there. That has told on his record and they're not sure in Austin if Charlie's the man to return them to national contention.

Fine coach, Charlie Strong, but if this one gets away from him...

Texas led 31-14 with 9 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. Six minutes of game time later and ND made it 31-28 and they've got the ball again.

Fine coach Charlie Strong, but Brian Kelly is an excellent coach. You can never count a Brian Kelly-coached team out. I saw that first-hand, well, second-hand when he coached at Cincinnati. One year, a very important year for both Cincy and Pitt, Pitt had them by two or more touchdowns in the third quarter and Cincy came back to win the game. Kept Pitt from going to one of those big bowls. Put Cincinnati in one of those big bowls. Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt's firing, a year later, I think, came for failure to win big ball games. It was true. It was right there for Pitt that year! Wannstedt lost the final two games, Cincinnati and some other. No Brian Kelly was Dave Wannstedt.

Kelly has a cobra's quickness to strike. He can see, although his team is down big, that this is the moment, and he strikes. His teams don't seem to hang their heads when they're down, because when opportunity presents to Kelly, his players go get it. Kelly and his teams are far less susceptible to the force of momentum than are other teams, otherly coached.

It is tough to keep college-age players playing such an intense, emotional game as tackle football from succumbing to Big Mo. Kelly won't let 'em and that is a big factor in making him such an excellent coach. Cobra Kelly.

That encomium took about 25 minutes so I'll go back to tracking the game and Texas will be up twenty.

Well...Brian Kelly, lauded here as recently as six weeks ago, as remotely as 2007 when the undersigned predicted he would become "the next great coach in college football," is the subject of much discontent this Sunday afternoon.

On accounta the "Lakers" are now 2-5. 

On accounta they lost to Stanford in Notre Dame Stadium Saturday 17-10.

On accounta the "Trees" were without Big Tree Christian McCaffrey.  "Lakers" still couldn't beat 'em.

On accounta they lost to N.C. State last weekend in a hurricane-produced lake of a stadium in Raleigh.

On accounta Kelly fired his defensive coordinator a couple of weeks ago, on accounta he publicly blamed his center after a bad snap in the Laker's Mistake at NC State, on accounta the only teams Notre Dame has beaten so far are Nevada and Syracuse.

On accounta, on accounta, on accounta. 

Professor Kelly is in his 7th season at Notre Dame. Took his students to the National Gridiron Final Examination a couple years back. Took the silver medal in that one. Alabama's scholars led 28-0 at the half. Not a good "look." A bit tarnished, that silver medal. 

Went 10-3 last year. Has not had a losing season by the Lake. Will this year.

Is "prickly." Raged at his own strength coach on the sidelines (and on national TV) last year, attacked the guy, really. Charged at him and grabbed/pushed him. Tres embarrassing. Raged at the same guy Saturday, who is now the strength coach at Stanford, after the game when the guy brushed past Kelly and said "bye bye." Comment on Kelly's tenure at ND, that was, or that's how Kelly took it anywho.

"Arrogant." "Brusque." Two of the terms used to describe his temperament. "Miserable human being" is another. 

Notre Dame does not approve of that temperament. They're Notre Dame! Last time they had a coach to whom those terms of endearment could apply was Lou Holtz. Last time they won a national championship was under Sweet Lou, too. 

Notre Dame has made some bad-ass hires over the years: a high school coach (I am not making that up), Charlie "Decided Schematic Advantage" Weis. Just got finished paying off Charlie, they did. Fired him in 2009. Just got finished paying him off. 

Notre Dame extended Brian Kelly's contract in January of this year. He's paid up through the 2021 season. At at least $4,000,000 per that's at least $20,000,000. Notre Dame doesn't want to pay Brian Kelly $20,000,000 not to coach them the way they paid Decided Schematic Advantage not to coach them. It's not a bottomless lake.

What to do, what to do. Winning another national championship, which, whenever that comes, will be the first since 1989, is no longer required at Notre Dame, I don't think. I think they've said that. They play the toughest schedule in the country and if they are "competitive" I think the ND administration is satisfied. I mean they just extended Kelly's contract after his sixth year and the most impressive bowl win they have is, I guess, the Sun Bowl. It's between the Sun, Pinstripe and Music City bowls. Hasn't won a national championship. Will NOT win a national championship this year. That'd be seven years without a national championship. Doesn't look like he's even gonna get to play in a Sun, Pinstripe, Music City or any other bowl this year, either.

If I am correct that competitive, like competitive-competitive, is the new normal by the Lake then I don't think they will fire Kelly at the end of this year, no matter how uncompetitive he is. And at 2-5 he's damned uncompetitive! He's been competitive-competitive for six years, come on.

But even a competitive-competitive 9-4 next year (his average before this year was 9 wins) may not cut it on accounta there are probably some other guys out there who could go 9-4 at Notre Dame without being an asshole about it. 

My first thought after the game last night was, "Brian Kelly got out-coached", a first for me. That was not a Brian Kelly team. Brian Kelly teams do not lose games in the fourth quarter, much less with eight seconds left. 

It was also not a Lincoln Riley team. Oh, the big offensive plays were there. But the defense! The Olé defense, the swinging gate defense, the sieve defense, the last-team-with-the-ball wins defense. Poof! LSU's first drive told. Marched right down the field. SC's D stiffened at the 3. Kelly knew his O would score against the la-la softies from SoCal. Stopped on 4th down. Kelly knew that even if, inexplicably, they didn't get the touchdown they'd have SC so pinned down that they'd get the ball back at midfield, heck, maybe even get a safety! But Miller Moss, SC's QB, stared Death Valley in the face, and game out slinging. Nine yards on the first play, eight on the second, both passes. They got respectable field position and then BOOMED a punt all the way down to the "Tigers" 17. Well. Not yesterday's USC!

Kelly didn't know his opponent for once. Lincoln Riley knew his opponent better and the "Trojans" got a signature win and Kelly an unusual, dispiriting L. He got out-coached.

Brian Kelly became Notre Dame's all-time winningest coach on Sept. 25, surpassing Knute Rockne. Who'd a thought, right? Kelly's "Irish" got blown out in their only national championship game appearance in 2012 (and then had all wins in that season and the next vacated). Notre Dame has not won a national championship since 1988. Not had a Heisman Trophy winner since '77. And, the point here, has not ever had a great college quarterback in Kelly's eleven and one-half seasons. Imagine that from Quarterback U. From the '40's through the '70's: Bertelli (Heisman), Lujack (Heisman), Hornung (Heisman), Lamonica, Huarte (Heisman), Hanratty, Theismann, Montana, at one time if you were Notre Dame's starting QB you were automatically in the Heisman conversation. 

Notre Dame ceded the name Quarterback U to Miami in the early 1980's. In seven of his 11 1/2 years at ND Kelly has rotated two QB's. The failure of Brian Kelly to lure a Jim Kelly, a Bernie Kosar, a Vinny Testaverde, a Johnny Manziel, Marcus Mariota, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence or even to settle on one good-but-not-great QB as Lou Holtz did Tony Rice the last time the "Irish" won it all--in sum, the failure of to handle the quarterback position adeptly is the reason Notre Dame has not, and never will, win a national championship under Brian Kelly.

LSU star wide receiver screaming at head coach Brian Kelly:

kyren lacy brian kelly

Kelly giving wide receiver Chris Hilton, Jr. what for:

kelly, hilton jr


Hunter McCann
@mccann_hunter


I am not a professional lip reader…. But… Sure did look like Brian Kelly told Chris Hilton this on the sideline… “Don’t walk away from me! You are f**king uncoachable. Who the f**k do you think you are?”

4:37 PM · Nov 16, 2024
·
3.9M Views

Clemson "Tigers" 3 Elle Esse Ew "Tigers" 0, 7:56 1Q

LSU coach Brian Kelly shows frustration with his receivers early in Clemson game

LSU football coach Brian Kelly was less than pleased with mistakes made by a pair of his receivers in the first quarter of Saturday night's game against Clemson.

First, Barion Brown was the culprit on an illegal formation call that wiped out a 16-yard run by Caden Durham. 

Following the penalty, Kelly and Barion were seen in an intense conversation on the sideline.

...

As LSU headed to the sideline, Kelly was seen expressing his displeasure with co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach Cortez Hankton. Once the players made their way to the sideline, Kelly began to shout at wide receiver Chris Hilton.

LSU trailed 3-0 late in the first quarter, and it's clear that Kelly knows his team has to clean up the mistakes to avoid a fourth consecutive season-opening loss under his watch.

NOLA

“The next great coach in college tackle football will be Brian Kelly, recently hired by the University of Cincinnati. I am Benjamin Harris.”  January 1, 2007 http://publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com/search?q=brian+kelly

The University of Notre Dame du lac, which I did not know was Notre Dame’s official name, which is French, which I took two years of in (senior) high school, which I can therefore translate myself as Our Lady of the lake, which refers to the Virgin Mary, who I did not know had any connection with a lake, whose motto is Vita Dulcedo, Spes, which is Latin, which I took two years of in (junior) high school, which I am a little rusty on, which Wikipedia says means “Life, Sweetness, Hope,” whose nickname is the “Fighting Irish,” which is discordant with the aforesaid Virginian and inconsistent with the French name and the Latin motto, is the number one ranked college tackle football team in America today for the first time since 1993 and the aforesaid Brian Kelly, who was very successful at Cincinnati, but never made them the number one team in the country, who left them in 2010 for more sweetness and hope, is now the Notre Dame coach.

I wish to receive plaudits for that bold Vision.  Uno plaudit.

Thank you, thank you, oh you really shouldn't have, thank you.

Image (top): Grace Hall, Notre Dame campus.

Elle Esse Ew has tyoo losses...

...both to ranked SEC teams on the road, in a year where Head Asshole Brian Kelly flapped his pie hole that the Bayou Chinese were going to...

LSU Tigers Coach Brian Kelly Is Guaranteeing 2025 National Championship

Tonight they are at home against Texas DEI (3) and trail 14-9, 12:13 2Q. Lose a third game to a ranked conference opponent before the calendar turns November and Brian Kelly is road kill...which I am quiescent about.

Good morninga Brian Kelly!

Elko credited the strong finish to strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt, who held the same role at LSU from 2000 to 2021 until being ousted during the coaching transition from Ed Orgeron to Brian Kelly.

"Moffitt wanted this game just as bad as anyone else," said [QB Marcel] Reed, who finished with 202 passing yards and 2 touchdowns, and 108 rushing yards and 2 scores. "I remember Thursday, he kind of brought in a tackling dummy with Brian Kelly's face on it. Yeah, this one was an important one to him."

ESPN

Sporting News

Half-time scores:

Notre Dame 33, Syracuse 27. Syracuse missed a makeable 40-yard field goal at the end or it would have been 33-20. Brian Kelly fired his defensive coordinator but Syracuse is on track to score 54. If Kelly loses this game and the "Irish" fall to 1-4, Kelly's own job will be in jeopardy. No excuses for this.

Iowa State 28, #13 Baylor 2

Oklahoma State 37, #22 Texas 25. Charlie Strong's "D" gave up 50 in a loss to Cal. Okie State is half-way to 74. If this keeps up...see Brian Kelly.

FT EPL:

Swansea 1, Liverpool 2. Livers doing well.

Clubs think they saw in former Livers manager Brendan "Jolly" Rodgers' 3-3 draw with City at Celtic a way to stop Pep's Boys: crowd space around City's players to prevent tiki-taka. We'll see tomorrow at Spurs.

"Sources: Brian Kelly informed of LSU's intention to dismiss him"--Pete Thamel ESPN

Weird phrasing.

LSU coach Brian Kelly was informed of the school's intention to dismiss him on Sunday, and the program is expected to inform the team of this development at a meeting later tonight, sources told ESPN.

Talks about the terms of his departure are expected to continue, and the situation remains in flux...Kelly is owed just over $54 million in buyout money, and that looms as one of the issues in the discussions.

Pete Thamel ESPN

Brian Kelly calls TO with :20 to play at Tenn. 3, down 40-13. Has Kelly had a brain transplant from Greg Schiano? This is the worst, most puzzling game I have ever read Brian Kelly coach.

Man, I just watched 18 and a half minutes of highlights of the SC-LSU game and boy I'd be pissed if I was Brian Kelly too. Number 2 for LSU got two personal foul penalties, the first after he made a TD catch to tie the game 7-7. I didn't see what he did. Must have been a celebration penalty. That foul was enforced on the kickoff and did allow, as Kelly said, USC to get a field goal. They got a great runback on the kickoff that set them up because of the penalty. The second though, again, also on number 2, was crucial. It was on SC's final winning drive. The pass was complete for a first down and then number 2 hit the receiver in the head with his helmet, clearly targeting. That moved the ball half the distance and SC got the touchdown. Argh!

In terms of game play LSU got enormous, sustained pressure on the quarterback, who was outstanding, also as Kelly said, but the "Tigers" D was thus vulnerable to the run and SC made them pay again and again with runs right up the gut. SC's sterling QB play was complemented by their tremendous receivers. LSU definitely had the advantage in smash-mouth, but SC had the superior players at the skill positions. Kelly underestimated both quarterback and receivers and his defense was unprepared. And then the costly, costly big penalties just killed the "Tigers". Exasperating game for Kelly and LSU fans, who really should have won the game. And Kelly was really, most sincerely exasperated afterwards.

"All the News that's fit to print" does not include Florida

 

Brian Kelly Leaves 

Notre Dame for L.S.U.

(NYT)

Brian Kelly will leave Notre Dame to become the football coach at Louisiana State, the latest in a series of changes at some of the country’s most storied college football programs.

Billy Napier's hiring not mentioned "in a series of changes". Florida not included among "some of the country's most storied college football programs."

The news was confirmed Tuesday morning by L.S.U.

The hiring follows the move of Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to Southern California. Both shifts surprised the college football world, where coaches do not regularly voluntarily leave elite programs, and created enticing vacancies at the universities Riley and Kelly left behind.

Tigers head football coach Brian Kelly wouldn’t last another year at LSU but probably will because of 5-star QB recruit Bryce Underwood – who received a $10.5 million NIL offer from Michigan and is on flip watch right now.

College Football Report
@CFBRep

If Bryce Underwood decommits (which he probably won’t), Brian Kelly will get fired instantly. Underwood’s commitment is the only reason he has another year or two at LSU.

6:59 PM · Nov 16, 2024
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96.3K Views

The Next Great Coach In College Tackle Football Will Be Brian Kelly

The next great coach in college tackle football will be Brian Kelly recently hired by the University of Cincinnati. I am Benjamin Harris.

😂

Unnecessary Roughness

@UnnecRoughness

Brian Kelly is attacking all his fellow LSU coaches

https://x.com/UnnecRoughness/status/1982272926255583377

10:27 PM · Oct 25

Andy Staples

@Andy_Staples


This ESPN director is just playing the hits. [KC Concepcion pops a punt return] 

"OK, cut to Brian Kelly and the special teams coach.”

10:27 PM · Oct 25, 2025

·3,786 Views

B. Fox

@BearcatsRadio

If someone had said they thought Brian Kelly would leave Notre Dame for LSU last week, I might’ve laughed out loud. What in the world is going on?

11:22 PM · Nov 29, 2021·Twitter for iPhone

Oregon Recruiting

@duckscrootin

Within 24 hours Lincoln Riley leaves Oklahoma for USC and then Brian Kelly leaves Notre Dame for LSU.

What is going on, indeed. Amazing.

Georgia (3) Tennessee (1)

Yes, Tennessee is #1--in the official College Football Playoff seeding. My goodness, congratulations to "Vols" Nation. UGA is however a 9.5-point favorite to win the game.

No. 1 vs No. 3. This is only a game that could be played in the SEC. It is an amazing conference. What must tickets be going for in Athens on the "secondary market"? 

That game is at 3:30 and at 7 #10 LSU hosts 'Bama (6) on the Irish bayou. I'm going to try to guess the line...Alabama -6. -13.5?!?! I tentatively resolved to invest no more in college football futures after cleaning up a couple of weeks ago, but this line strikes me as almost as wrong as that line was (Ok. State-K-State?). I know Brian Kelly in the way you can know a football coach who you have followed for decades but have never met. I know that Brian Kelly feasts on these games. I know that the "Bayous Chinese Bandit Tigers" got skinned by then-8th Tennessee in this same venue three weeks ago. And that 40-13 skinning has me concerned. But last week they beat Ole' Miss, 7th at the time, 45-20. ...So they got creamed by #8 here and creamed #7 here. Now they have #6 here. And it's BAMA. I don't care, I can't resist that line. How much do I risk? ...Nickel or dime. Nickel or dime, dime or nickel, um, um, um. I'm putting a dime on it. A dime on LSU getting 13.5.

Coupla nice little games in the Almost Competitive Conference. Nothing to compare to this SEC heavyweight tilts but nice undercards.

Clemson (4) at Notre Dame. Clem is -4. I have no quarrel with that line.

My beloved Pitt "PANTHERS" are at the stadium formerly known as Heinz against the 20th-ranked Syracuse "Orangemen" losers of two straight after being ranked as high as 14th. The Beloveds are 4-point faves. I don't have a mark on either of these two teams and wouldn't bet on a Pitt game anyway.

How 'bout this one in the ACC: NC State (22)-Wake Forest (21). Nice! Forest is -3 at Wolves.

In short pants City are 1-1 at HT agin' Fulman. Cancelo got a red card (!) in the 26', Fulman converted and the Angels have to play the rest of the match down a man!