I’m buying what Brian Kelly is selling at Notre Dame

When your program is down, a college football fan only has two occasions that can brighten his outlook for the future.

The first is national signing day, which happens the first Wednesday in February on an annual basis. It makes you think that no matter how bad a certain position is, help is on the way.

The second is the hiring of a new coach. Most schools won’t make a move until at least three years into a coaches’ tenure so this doesn’t happen nearly as often as most fans would prefer when their team is losing. (See the official unofficial blog of FireRonZook.com, the Fire Ron Zook bumper sticker, and the Fire Ron Zook Facebook campaign as examples.)

There have been plenty of highly touted recruiting classes and four head coaching hires prior to this one since I have followed Notre Dame football.

Each year it’s easy to get re-energized from the disappointment from the previous year by the recruiting class because a mediocre recruiting class by Notre Dame standards would have other teams’ fans rejoicing. A Notre Dame recruiting class is kind of like pizza. Even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.
Those four head coaching hires on the other hand haven’t exactly woken up the echoes. Even when they all started, the excitement that should come with a new coach was more forced than genuine.

Bob Davie had no head coaching experience and followed one of the most charismatic personalities in college football in Lou Holtz. George O’Leary had little more than an Irish name to get the masses excited and was dumped over lying on his resume less than a week in. Tyrone Willingham was the back up to the back up plan and experienced average success at Stanford during a down time in the PAC 10. Lastly, Charlie Weis was a career pro football assistant who brought a professional mentality to the college game and would have to learn to be a head college coach on the job.

What all of them had in common before being hired was that they never had any sustained success as a college head coach prior to being hired. (Or after for that matter, hence why they were fired.) So no matter what you say in your introductory press conference, if you don’t have the track record to back it up then it is tough for anyone to truly believe that they can be the guy to return the school to glory.

Brian Kelly has the background that makes you believe he can do it as head coach at Notre Dame. Two national championships at Division II Grand Valley State. A MAC championship at Central Michigan. Back to back Big East championships and an undefeated season at Cincinnati. That’s what the Irish needed more than anything, a proven winner. They finally have that again with Brian Kelly.

Notre Dame has been down before. Each time they have risen from the ashes to re-emerge as a national power and each time they were led by coaches who were already proven in college football. Frank Leahy did it at Boston College. Ara Parseghian did it at Northwestern. Dan Devine did it at Missouri. Lou Holtz did it at North Carolina State and Arkansas. It’s not a coincidence that of the other coaches that they rolled the dice on all came up craps.

When Kelly was formaly introduced to the nation as the new coach of the Fighting Irish he relayed all of the stories that certainly excited a lot of the faithful. But we’ve heard that from others before and an appreciation for the tradition isn’t enough to get me excited.

What got me excited was that everything he said about developing players and winning championships he can actually back up. Not since Lou Holtz was hired and injected the program with his fire has there been anyone able to say that.

You can count me amongst those who are buying what Brian Kelly is selling at Notre Dame. He’s proven reliable before and I’ll gladly take everything he has to offer.

-Jamie Uyeyama

My Heart Belongs to NBC This Sunday

The NFC East has the last word on drama this year.  Between Jeff Lurie/Tony Dungy Michael Vick pet project and McNabbs broken ribs The Eagles have climbed the adversity mountain, and Andy Reid is huffing and puffing.  Philadelphia may have had an off game here and there, but they’ve won their last three and at last count had three quarterbacks that could start for better than half the teams in the league.

The Giants start out 5-0, take a 6 game vacation (beating the Falcons shouldn’t count).  Tom Coughlin told his team he would actually have them all killed if they didn’t snap out of it, they didn’t think he was kidding  and managed to crawl back from the abyss in a barn-burner against the Cowboys last Sunday.  Now they stand a game out of first place in their division trying to decide if they’re on their way up or down.

In Texas, America’s Team moves into their new Death Star and finds a way to cope with life after Terrell, and Tony Romo, the most eligible bachelor in all of Christendom, still can’t close his eyes without feeling Bob Costas’ sickly breath rolling down his neck.

And finally, the Redskins…  Nobody cares about the Redskins.

And now, as we round the corner to the post season, regardless of who comes out on top, the two NFC East bridesmaids could both be sitting pretty on a Wild Card depending on how long the Packers can keep it together down the stretch.  For the record, Green Bay has to take on the Cardinals, the Steelers (who in all likelihood, after Thursdays abortion, will be playing for pride) and a Bears team this very Sunday with a chip on their shoulders the size of Lake Michigan.

This Sunday night we get to watch an inter-divisional slugfest that could go a very long way to deciding who takes top honours in the division.  The Eagles are crossing a dirty dirty river into New Jersey and taking on the team they embarrassed in week eight.

The name of the game for Philly is going to be the Ground Game, they’re running it near perfectly thanks to an inspired, healthy and fast offensive line that could pull double shift guarding Thermopylae if the mood took them.  That’s bad news for New York, their run defense doesn’t have anything more impressive than a strongly worded request to stop.  Donovan McNabb has put up good numbers all year and they’re looking stronger and stronger every week coming off three wins in a row.

For the Giants, Kevin Boss is the one of the many tight ends this season simply dominant at their position, and if New York can creep themselves anywhere near the red zone, there isn’t a better closer playing right now.  At this point the home team is outmatched every which way and a victory will be a function of superior grit.

The Point spread gives a slight 1.5 advantage to the visitors.  My heart is really with the Giants, this wouldn’t be the first time they’ve won a game they have no business winning and that they’ve managed to shake a slump and still be in contention bodes well for their playoff chances. My money, on the other hand, is with the Eagles.  Philadelphia is the complete package and they look like they’re getting even better every weekend.  I think they’re going to win by more than a touchdown, and I’m betting over 44.5 points.

- Jeremy Beal

Week 13: WTF

Week Thirteen had more twists than a Lost/Dr. Who crossover, and I’m thanking providence I never got around to calling the Vikings a sure thing before the weekend.

It is absolutely killing me, but I’m going to finally have to start paying Arizona some respect.  The Bridesmaids of the NFC butted heads in Sunday Night and the Cardinals dusted off their loss last week to the Titans by kicking the shit out of a Vikings Team that never saw it coming.  It may not have been the upset of the season, but it’s a huge statement for a team that’s been on again off again all season despite being uncontested in their division.  The Cardinals secondary came up with some looks that were straight out of Vaudeville, nobody knew what to make of them, least of all Favre who threw two picks, and got sacked three times, Osteoporosis be damned.  The Arizona O-Line deserves medals of honor for the pass protection they pulled off against the meanest front four in the game.  Warner had enough time to check his investments via Blackberry before finding and hitting his receivers.  The Cardinals are the first team this season to consistently double team Jared Allen.  They did it and it worked, so you can bet number 69 is going to have to make friends with two Offensive Lineman for the rest of the year.  It must be flattering.  I’m looking for these two teams to renew hostilities somewhere in the playoffs and prove once and for all that not all old people are completely useless.

If that wasn’t enough to throw my Sunday in a loop, the Dolphins beat up a Patriots team that have now dropped three of their last four.  Anyway you slice it Boston’s finest sure ain’t what they used to be, but you can bet whoever’s lined up against them in the playoffs isn’t going to feel lucky.  The Dolphins meanwhile have four games to take over first place, and if Ricky Williams keeps playing the way he has, they are going to walk all over Jacksonville and finally take hold of the AFC East.

All this stuff is weird, but nothing could have prepared me for flicking the channel over to the Saints game to see them squeaking a win out in overtime thanks to a bum kick by one Shaun Suisham, a terrible terrible person who should probably just fall on his sword and get it over with.  Regardless, that a consistently hopeless Redskins squad beat the spread like an enemy combatant and only lost on a last minute fuckup has to mean the Saints have a little more paper to their tiger than anybody thought.

It had to be a crazy weekend indeed for a Stars/Giants matchup to fly under the radar, but it might have been one of the better games of the year.  Romo was scoring with Whitten like he was a skinny Jessica Simpson and still they couldn’t beat a Giants team that was making hungry touchdowns.  That NFC East is the tightest division in Football, and next Sunday’s meeting between the Giants and the Eagles is going to be the game for the ages.

- Jeremy Beal