Just as I was hoping for Brian Kelly is the new head coach at Notre Dame. Looks to be a 5 year deal with the Irish. Now for those that don’t know me, I root for 3 schools; UCLA (because I was born and raised in L.A. and my uncle went there and USC is just evil) Ole Miss (my brother and his girlfriend whom he met there, go there and I call Mississippi home now), and Notre Dame because of course I am Roman Catholic since 2001.
So lets look at Kelly’s resume real quick:
Grand Valley State University (1991-2003) A program he turned around with an overall record of 118-35-2 and won back to back National Championships in Division II play in 2002 and 2003.
Central Michigan University (2004-2006) Taking over a program that had not won more than 3 games in it’s previous 4 seasons. The team went 4-7 his first year in 2004, 2005 they went 6-5, their first winning season in 7 years, and in 2006 they went 9-4 winning the Mid-American Conference championship and qualifying for the Motor City Bowl, he left for University of Cincinnati prior to the bowl game which CMU won over Middle Tennessee State.
University of Cincinnati (2006-2009) Taking over the Bearcats in the International Bowl in 2006 him and his staff (his staff coached CMU’s bowl win) beat Western Michigan 27-24 (A team he had beaten in the regular season as coach at CMU, giving him the unique distinction of being the only NCAA coach to beat the same team twice in one season while coaching two different teams. 2007 he lead the Bearcats in his first full season to a 9-3 record earning him Big East Coach of the Year honors and beating Southern Mississippi in the PapaJohns.com Bowl giving the program it’s 10th win. 2008 UC wins the Big East title outright but would lose in the Orange Bowl to Virginia Tech. This season the Bearcats finished 12-0 and another Big East championship the school also has the highest academic rating of any school in the top 10. They face Florida in the Sugar Bowl and he leaves UC with a 34-6 record.
So as you can see everywhere Brian Kelly has gone he has won and the teams have gotten better each year. He has also proved he can get the most out of the talent he has and can motivate his players to run through a wall. I never got that sense with Coaches Weis or Willingham. He is taking over a program that just with it’s name can recruit now it has a coach players want to play for as well. Mark my words the Irish will be in the BCS race in maybe a year or 2 tops, maybe even playing for a National Championship.
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