Kelly being interviewed after the UConn game in 2009
The headline says it all. And, while it sucks to be in a position such as ours, fans and supporters alike must remember one thing. There’s still one game left to be played.
At one point last night I had to turn my phone off. It was that bad. People I hadn’t heard from in weeks sent me messages. “What’s going on?” one friend asked me. “Is he really gone?” said another. After ten minutes of my phone constantly buzzing I decided it was enough and killed the power to it.
That’s what you need to know about last night. In fact, quarterbacks Coach Greg Forest even tweeted before the night began, “Please stop calling, texting me I do not know anything.” Maybe he should have sent that out for all of us.
I, like many others, not only don’t blame Coach Kelly for leaving, but wish him well at Notre Dame. Full disclosure: I’m a Catholic kid who attended 12 years of Catholic schooling. I know plenty of Notre Dame fans, and I mean plenty. Heck, I guess if Elder High School didn’t exist the whole West Side of Cincinnati would be blue and gold, bleeding for the Irish of Notre Dame.
The only thing I keep stressing to folks who are still seemingly searching for answers is this. And Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty wrote it this morning, “You can feel spurned and angry and cry about the farce that is a college coaching contract. If you’re hissed, think about Kelly’s players, who didn’t know what was going on until they got to the team banquet Thursday night.” 
I’m not a player, nor will I ever claim to be, but I certainly feel for them. It’s gotta be tough not knowing who will lead you for the next few years. Senior quarterback Tony Pike said, “We listen to the radio and the news just as much as everyone else. It’s probably a little harder on us, because we’re getting the calls from our friends and family, wanting to know what’s really happening. It’s hard, because we don’t know either.”
And for someone like Pike, who became a superstar under Kelly in the past two seasons, it’s tough to not feel for the kids. It’s also tough not to feel for Kelly, who as 700 WLW play-by-play man Dan Hoard said:
“I am disappointed by how things ended. As soon as BK accepted the job, he should have flown to Cincinnati, called an immediate team meeting and let his players know exactly what he had decided. It's such an obvious thing to do that I'm shocked that his guys were forced to twist in the wind waiting to hear it from him while every media outlet aside from Al Jazeera was running a "Notre Dame Hires Kelly" story. For a guy who usually has impeccable P.R. instincts, that was awful.”
But as I told my co-workers last night, “There might not have been any good way to do what [Coach Kelly] did.”
So, that’s the story for today. I believe Notre Dame will make it official in an hour or two, and the man who took me to Birmingham, Alabama, Miami, Florida and could have taken us to New Orleans had he stayed, will become the newest head man at Notre Dame.
Good luck Coach Kelly. As Daugherty wrote earlier, “Wish him well, thank him for coming. May the road rise up to meet him, and all that. Kelly deserves as much. What he did with the football program was beyond remarkable. What he did for the school was equally so.”
Thanks for the memories Coach Kelly. They were good while they lasted.
At one point last night I had to turn my phone off. It was that bad. People I hadn’t heard from in weeks sent me messages. “What’s going on?” one friend asked me. “Is he really gone?” said another. After ten minutes of my phone constantly buzzing I decided it was enough and killed the power to it.That’s what you need to know about last night. In fact, quarterbacks Coach Greg Forest even tweeted before the night began, “Please stop calling, texting me I do not know anything.” Maybe he should have sent that out for all of us.
I, like many others, not only don’t blame Coach Kelly for leaving, but wish him well at Notre Dame. Full disclosure: I’m a Catholic kid who attended 12 years of Catholic schooling. I know plenty of Notre Dame fans, and I mean plenty. Heck, I guess if Elder High School didn’t exist the whole West Side of Cincinnati would be blue and gold, bleeding for the Irish of Notre Dame.
The only thing I keep stressing to folks who are still seemingly searching for answers is this. And Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty wrote it this morning, “You can feel spurned and angry and cry about the farce that is a college coaching contract. If you’re hissed, think about Kelly’s players, who didn’t know what was going on until they got to the team banquet Thursday night.” I’m not a player, nor will I ever claim to be, but I certainly feel for them. It’s gotta be tough not knowing who will lead you for the next few years. Senior quarterback Tony Pike said, “We listen to the radio and the news just as much as everyone else. It’s probably a little harder on us, because we’re getting the calls from our friends and family, wanting to know what’s really happening. It’s hard, because we don’t know either.”And for someone like Pike, who became a superstar under Kelly in the past two seasons, it’s tough to not feel for the kids. It’s also tough not to feel for Kelly, who as 700 WLW play-by-play man Dan Hoard said:“I am disappointed by how things ended. As soon as BK accepted the job, he should have flown to Cincinnati, called an immediate team meeting and let his players know exactly what he had decided. It's such an obvious thing to do that I'm shocked that his guys were forced to twist in the wind waiting to hear it from him while every media outlet aside from Al Jazeera was running a "Notre Dame Hires Kelly" story. For a guy who usually has impeccable P.R. instincts, that was awful.”
But as I told my co-workers last night, “There might not have been any good way to do what [Coach Kelly] did.”
So, that’s the story for today. I believe Notre Dame will make it official in an hour or two, and the man who took me to Birmingham, Alabama, Miami, Florida and could have taken us to New Orleans had he stayed, will become the newest head man at Notre Dame.
Good luck Coach Kelly. As Daugherty wrote earlier, “Wish him well, thank him for coming. May the road rise up to meet him, and all that. Kelly deserves as much. What he did with the football program was beyond remarkable. What he did for the school was equally so.”
Thanks for the memories Coach Kelly. They were good while they lasted.
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