Thoughts on letting Kelly walk when his market salary exceeded expected performance?

 

The easy decision here would have been just paying Kelly and then Riding your way to 10-11 wins per season behind the excuse of academic restrictions.

Harder saying Mediocrity's not worth 10 million a year lets challenge for better and risk what we know

 

Thoughts on letting the current team have a large say of picking Freeman  

Easy. Don't meet with the players. Pay Luke Fickell or Matt Campbell to coach.

Harder: Hire a young coach with a shorter resume and alot of potiental

I am ok with ND not making Kelly the second highest paid coach in the NCAA. That said. If ND wanted to keep Kelly they should have paid him market not waited for him to come with a big offer to match. Hopefully they have learned the lesson and will keep good coaches by paying them well.

I voted yes to the first question.  I have no problem letting him go if this is the money he feels he deserves.  His record in top 10 regular season games and major bowl games says otherwise.

I voted yes to the second question with one caveat.  I love the hiring of Freeman but I hope Swarbrick did his due diligence reaching out to a certain coach or two to at least gauge interest or lack thereof. 

1 hour ago, NYGoldenDomer said:

I voted yes to the first question.  I have no problem letting him go if this is the money he feels he deserves.  His record in top 10 regular season games and major bowl games says otherwise.

I voted yes to the second question with one caveat.  I love the hiring of Freeman but I hope Swarbrick did his due diligence reaching out to a certain coach or two to at least gauge interest or lack thereof. 

Thats my issue, I think the playoff committee rushed his decision making. So I just hope ND doesn't look back and say they should have took  their time. Freeman could have still coached but I feel like the playoffs and recruiting timeline effected things 

1) I thought that Kelly was underachieving at ND so no problem letting someone else (i.e. LSU) overpay for his services.

2) While I think that Fickell had less risk due to a higher floor, I think that Freeman has the potential to recruit Top 5 classes to ND on a consistent basis giving him a higher ceiling. With Fickell showing loyalty and staying focused at Cincinnati due to the CFP (which is a reason why I would want Fickell as a coach), Freeman's immediate availability and ability to keep the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes intact, offset some of the associated risk of no head coaching experience and made him a good choice for ND.

1. I am proud that they scoffed at matching. He hasn't won crap to be worth that kind of money

2. It is a new world and I believe they should have a voice. But the AD should do due diligence no matter the case. MF was the right selection though in my opinion. 

Was matching even an option?  I keep hearing BK had already turned into his alter ego Bayou Brian , no matching opportunity given.

 

Moreso, heard Wannstedt say on Cowherd that BB had tried for the Tampa Bay job, implying that both parties were ok with , well, parting ways

Edited December 7, 20213 yr by zemaniak

24 minutes ago, zemaniak said:

Was matching even an option?  I keep hearing BK had already turned into his alter ego Bayou Brian , no matching opportunity given.

 

Moreso, heard Wannstedt say on Cowherd that BB had tried for the TB job, implying that both parties were ok with , well, parting ways

Well there is a rumor that BK wanted a meeting he didn't get after MSU extended their coach. So I do think it was Jack's choice indirectly not to match and I think a good one at that.

6 minutes ago, FaithInIrishForever said:

Well there is a rumor that BK wanted a meeting he didn't get after MSU extended their coach. So I do think it was Jack's choice indirectly not to match and I think a good one at that.

This also comes off the heels of Kelly getting an extension of his own back in 2020.  Had we not literally just revisited Kelly's contract, I might be more inclined to see his side of things.  I can't accept that Kelly should have been in the LSU price range at all, and Mel Tucker's Michigan State success shouldn't blow up the contract extension we just negotiated.

 

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/2020/09/12/notre-dame-rewards-brian-kelly-contract-extension-through-2024-season/5782022002/

There should be more incentive based salaries (or bigger incentives less base). Fine if you’re a coach and worth your weight in gold, prove it. Win a NC and you’ll get a 2 or 3 million dollar bonus. 
 

These huge extensions and pay for winning a big regular season matchup are getting out of hand. What exactly is Tucker getting that kind of money for? Beating Michigan once? The Charlie Weis extension that they ended up having to pay off for years after he left.

coaches want their cake and to be able to eat it too and higher education universities are paying the price. This isn’t the NFL 

• ND is cheap. They believe the brand makes it an honor to coach here... No matter the rest of the schools are paying double or triple, for far less Wins.. 
• If the reports of BK making 3ishM are true, that's the definition of cheap if you're looking at big football jobs, and crazy cheap if you're looking at pay and performance (record)
• Dollar General Jack was not going to triple BK's pay, nor was Jack going to open up the purse for assistants like LSU. BK had to raise hell a few years ago just to get more money for assistants. 
• IMO this is a good thing for all parties. 
  • ND is disadvantaged on the recruiting trail due to it's own barriers. A young energetic guy with a D background might be what ND needs to get over the hump with 5 star kids, at least on the D side of the ball. Now we just need the planets to align and land an elite QB on the O side.
  • Too many people were constantly bitching about BK ad nauseum, and didn't appreciate the many things he did. Now they should be happy he's gone. But the truth is, they'll still find something to bitch about. They'll start with how bad Brian is for not turning down triple the money, a more supportive admin, easier recruiting, etc.. Those same people would easily jump from their jobs if someone offered then just 25% more lol...
  • Every team needs new blood, and change, every once in a while. It promotes growth. 
• Freeman is a risk, but I think a good risk to take. I'm optimistic. Hopefully if he does well, ND will actually pay him what he's worth and not lose him... 

I thought I heard Jack say the opportunity to match the LSU offer wasn’t there? Perhaps BK knew ND wouldn’t match, so best to avoid an awkward situation. 
 

Tucker at MSU hasn’t really done that much to deserve that ludicrous extension. Yes they had a comeback for the ages to beat Michigan, but for the better part of the game they were getting their butts kicked. 
 

Any new coaching hire (outside maybe Saban & Dabo) has some amount of risk in it. For me, Freeman was a great choice. He’s young, a great recruiter, a heck of a DC, well spoken, dynamic. If he wasn’t hired as a HC at ND or another school, he’d probably have been just introduced as the new DC at OSU.

3 hours ago, OKelleyIrish said:

• ND is cheap. They believe the brand makes it an honor to coach here... No matter the rest of the schools are paying double or triple, for far less Wins.. 
• If the reports of BK making 3ishM are true, that's the definition of cheap if you're looking at big football jobs, and crazy cheap if you're looking at pay and performance (record)
• Dollar General Jack was not going to triple BK's pay, nor was Jack going to open up the purse for assistants like LSU. BK had to raise hell a few years ago just to get more money for assistants. 
• IMO this is a good thing for all parties. 
  • ND is disadvantaged on the recruiting trail due to it's own barriers. A young energetic guy with a D background might be what ND needs to get over the hump with 5 star kids, at least on the D side of the ball. Now we just need the planets to align and land an elite QB on the O side.
  • Too many people were constantly bitching about BK ad nauseum, and didn't appreciate the many things he did. Now they should be happy he's gone. But the truth is, they'll still find something to bitch about. They'll start with how bad Brian is for not turning down triple the money, a more supportive admin, easier recruiting, etc.. Those same people would easily jump from their jobs if someone offered then just 25% more lol...
  • Every team needs new blood, and change, every once in a while. It promotes growth. 
• Freeman is a risk, but I think a good risk to take. I'm optimistic. Hopefully if he does well, ND will actually pay him what he's worth and not lose him... 

I thought that the real number for Kelly at ND in the last couple of years was considered to be around $7 million per year. He was getting paid by UA and others to supplement his salary from ND.

30 minutes ago, jbrown_9999 said:

I thought that the real number for Kelly at ND in the last couple of years was considered to be around $7 million per year. He was getting paid by UA and others to supplement his salary from ND.

We'll never know. But all published salaries, especially for big schools, are probably deflated. 

Just like BK might have gotten and extra 3M from UA, BK might be getting an extra 3M from Nike. 

I read one article that valued BK's new contract to be more like 140M vs the 95M reported. 

BK also gets a 1+M interest free loan for a house, 2 cars, etc... lol. 

5 hours ago, OKelleyIrish said:

We'll never know. But all published salaries, especially for big schools, are probably deflated. 

Just like BK might have gotten and extra 3M from UA, BK might be getting an extra 3M from Nike. 

I read one article that valued BK's new contract to be more like 140M vs the 95M reported. 

BK also gets a 1+M interest free loan for a house, 2 cars, etc... lol. 

 

I'm all in with MF but yes I feel ND's hand was forced. In order to save the 2022 recruiting class Jack had to act quickly. MF might be a homerun hire...only time will tell.

4 hours ago, Irish_Thunder said:

 

I noticed that Kelly did not bother negotiating a bonus for actually winning a NY6 game. He is not stupid and knows his limitations... 🙂 

13 hours ago, Irish_Thunder said:

 

Nice touch from LSU with the 50 hours of jet time lol..