First thing is first, I have written numerous times about how the way BK left here wasn’t exactly the best way to pull it off, and it’s tough for me to harbor any ill feelings toward him. But I know come October 23rd I’ll be rooting hard against him, and for the Naval Academy. And Dave Curtis of the Sporting News noted, “The goal is to win national championships and graduate NFL draft picks/Nobel Prize candidates (though these days, beating Navy and USC would suffice).” See, I’m not the only one thinking it.
I still remember the first time I met Brian Kelly. He walked into the video office and introduced himself to me. He made sure to get the background on me, and noted that I shouldn’t wear so much Elder purple anymore. He was glad to see my Bearcat shirt on.
In three years I grew to know the ins and outs of the Brian Kelly way—the five minute periods for practice that never went longer than two hours. The constant pressure to get everything right, and his occasional smart aleck remarks that kept us laughing.
Enough of the personal narrative, let’s get down to business.
Now that he’s in South Bend, the pressure is on him to elevate the school he grew up rooting for back to national prominence. He’s starting by cutting all ties to the previous regime. “Everybody looks at Notre Dame and assumes it's special,” Kelly told Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun Times.
“I'm still defining 'special.' It's about team, team, team. I'm trying to get it to where they understand this is about Notre Dame, your teammates, your family and then yourself. I think they had it flipped the other way. It started with 'me,' and Notre Dame was at the other end.”
Kelly noted too that the previous Notre Dame coaching staff often promoted an NFL future to recruits, which was alluring, but the former UC Bearcats head man says he knows what it take to win at this level, and that’s what’s important right now. “[Weis] had great credibility to do that,” he said in an SI.com story. “I can't pitch that because I don't have that background. Mine is, 'I know how to get you to a BCS game.’”
Brian Kelly received much of the credit for guiding UC to the Allstate Sugar Bowl in January, but he left for Notre Dame before the game, leaving a sour taste in many Bearcat fans' mouths
And as someone who has attended two BCS games partly because of Brian Kelly, it’s tough to argue with that fact. But Coach Kelly made a comment that made me think about the way he left Cincinnati. He said this about the kids he’s now coaching in South Bend: “My impression, in the short amount of time I've been here, is that guys were playing for themselves,” he told SI.com. “‘Selfishness’ and ‘entitlement’ are two words that would be apropos.”
The first BCS Bowl BK and UC went to in 2008, the 75th Orange Bowl, didn't go as planned. UC lost to Virginia Tech 20-7
To be fair, wasn’t Kelly’s departure from Cincinnati about selfishness and entitlement? I loved Brian Kelly, and I loved the way he ran his football program while here in the Queen City, but the way he left town made a bad impression on a lot of people.
I’m sure this won’t be the last time I write about BK, and knowing a lot of the coaches who are up there, I’m sure I’ll pay attention to the Fighting Irish, but the question is, can I root for them? I know on at least one occasion I won’t be. Go Navy.
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