Simplifying Notre Dame Football

[FaithInIrish Forever 3,848]

I felt like Kelly came in with his coaching degree already. He quickly rebuilt the infastructure of a team that could compete in the 2010s but then it was like he could win games in the board room and meeting room but forgot that he was in charge of the football field as well. Recruiting began to fall second to sports nutrition and better facilities. Practice was left to people who were seen as the best and brightest. 

 

I think Marcus Freeman is finishing his masters degree in coaching at Notre Dame. He's left the off-field stuff to assistant athletic directors and focused on making the team more talented and demanding his coaches use all the talent they are gathering. Its less complicated more fundamental. If you fumble you sit, but you do get a second chance. Old school coaching like Jim Tressel's "bumpy road to better". I have no idea how good Freeman will be but this approach is closer to a Lou Holtz, Frank Leahy approach. Go get your talent, use all of it, and limit mistakes. 1 play, 1 life. Let the Athletic Directors do their job. and coach the team with passion and purpose. Marcus Freeman is in charge of the football field.

 

I think this simpler, more straightforward approach will pay off. Either that or this thread won't age well. I'm willing to take that risk.

[jbrown_9999 941]

IMO, Kelly's biggest issue was that he never had a true mentor in his career. He played and coached at small time programs and then got his first HC gig at Grand Valley State. After that, he was the boss. As a result, he never experienced recruiting at a Top 10 program. His early years at ND, he was acting like he was still at a smaller program and needed to find diamonds in the rough. His talk of recruiting Size, Skill, and Big Skill or whatever it was made sense at GVSU, Central Michigan, etc. where you could not compete for 4 star and 5 star talent. 

Kelly appears to recruit only because he has to. He never truly tried for Top 5 classes at ND. Instead, Kelly was content to do the bare minimum needed to get Top 15 / Top 20 classes because Swarbrick had him on the "coldest seat in America". Even now, at LSU, while Kelly is focusing on recruiting the state of Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama are aggressively recruiting nationally. 

Freeman on the other hand. Appears to be 'all in' on recruiting. It shows in the percent of 4 and 5 star talent now at ND.

Edited September 17 by jbrown_9999