I support Brian Kelly and hope he stays and improves both as a coach . I think he has improved the competitiveness of the program. The blowouts losses where we were not competitive have largely disappeared. We are a better conditioned program and even while decimated by injuries still are competitive.
That being said, a couple of things concern me. One is the way he handled the holder/Brindza situation. Kyle Brindza has been a reliable kicker throughout his career who will leave ND with kicking records. Yet, late in his senior year Kelly seemingly said to Brindza "I'm making a change, deal with it". Though younger players need to understand that there are rules and practices that are not negotiable, a 4th year player-particularly a skill position player where the margin for error is small- needs to be treated differently imo. Brindza should have been consulted and I think Kelly should have deferred to his opinion of what the best course of action should be after the Arizona game. He had earned that respect over 4 years, but I don't think Kelly gave it to him, which is troubling. We all know what the result was.
The other thing that troubled me was Cam McDaniel's fumble against Northwestern. When you're building a successful program, your seniors must be reliable in game closing situations. They deliver. All the time. That's how it works with successful programs. The fact that 4 years into the program Cam didn't deliver concerns me. Older players must deliver, and both Cam and Brindza did not down the stretch resulting in two losses that should have been wins. Whatever the reasons are for this, Kelly needs to find out. He'll never have a consistently successful program without the older guys delivering in the clutch. He has taken a step backward this year. Let's hope its a one year anomaly in an upward trending program.
goirish83 5 posts
JTennant 5 posts
Jersey Irish 4 posts
I support Brian Kelly and hope he stays and improves both as a coach . I think he has improved the competitiveness of the program. The blowouts losses where we were not competitive have largely disappeared. We are a better conditioned program and even while decimated by injuries still are competitive.
That being said, a couple of things concern me. One is the way he handled the holder/Brindza situation. Kyle Brindza has been a reliable kicker throughout his career who will leave ND with kicking records. Yet, late in his senior year Kelly seemingly said to Brindza "I'm making a change, deal with it". Though younger players need to understand that there are rules and practices that are not negotiable, a 4th year player-particularly a skill position player where the margin for error is small- needs to be treated differently imo. Brindza should have been consulted and I think Kelly should have deferred to his opinion of what the best course of action should be after the Arizona game. He had earned that respect over 4 years, but I don't think Kelly gave it to him, which is troubling. We all know what the result was.
The other thing that troubled me was Cam McDaniel's fumble against Northwestern. When you're building a successful program, your seniors must be reliable in game closing situations. They deliver. All the time. That's how it works with successful programs. The fact that 4 years into the program Cam didn't deliver concerns me. Older players must deliver, and both Cam and Brindza did not down the stretch resulting in two losses that should have been wins. Whatever the reasons are for this, Kelly needs to find out. He'll never have a consistently successful program without the older guys delivering in the clutch. He has taken a step backward this year. Let's hope its a one year anomaly in an upward trending program.