My First Sip

Friday evening, I took my first sip of the Kelly Kool-Aid.  I have always loved his attitude, personality, confidence and realistic outlooks.  Holtz was well known for telling everyone how terrible they were and we would be lucky to be in the game or make a bowl.  Kelly is not as harsh as Holtz but he has kept the excitement at bay and has made sure no one is expecting too much.  This is important; fans don’t need to be too jacked up, talking crazy about undefeated seasons and National Championships – at least not yet anyway.  From enthusiastic fans to conservative analysts, people are willing to concede that Kelly may be able to have those conversations in two to three years.   But on Friday I saw a tell.  What is a tell? A tell is any clue, habit, behavior or physical reaction that gives other players more information about your hand.

I was watching coverage from team photo day on Tuesday when Kelly first made me think there may be more at play this season than improving on last year’s 8-5 record and going for a BCS Bowl Bid.  During team photo day there’s more than just the team picture.  Players march through the locker room stopping in front of different screens and backdrops for individual pictures, onto the field for group shots both organized and impromptu, then into the stands for the full team picture.

The first tell was more of a slip or maybe just fun talk with a player.  As each player funneled through the gauntlet of photographers snapping pictures, one stop is a photo in front of the famous “play like a champion sign” for a shot with Coach Kelly.   Kelly takes a moment with each of his players to chat for all of five seconds about something personal from “you’re doing great, keep it up” for freshman tight end Ben Koyack or “you’re mom’s going to love this one, this is for mom” to Aaron Lynch, freshman defensive end.   However, with cornerback Gary Grey, a fifth year graduate student it was a little different.  As Gary came down, Kelly said “Alright Gary, last time with me buddy,” three clicks of the camera then Brian says, “That’s the National Championship photo right there.”  With so many guys coming through many would say he could only come up with so many things to say to them.  Brian would never say that with a media presence around.  His guard was down, just UND.com filming, he was around the inner circle.  Not to over think it, I know the public goal is a BCS Bowl and national prominence, but is the in-house goal a National Championship run this year?

The second tell was a little less, well let’s just say a little less subtle.  While watching Friday’s post practice press conference, I sensed something from Kelly I had not seen before from him.  Something I thought I had gotten from Charlie Weiss, but in the end wasn’t there.  It was like he almost gave a wink indicating “yeah we got it and we got it now.”  I know Brain Kelly has won National Championships at the Division II level, tons of big games and coaching awards at all levels but he’s in another stratosphere being in South Bend and I don’t know if he can know if this team is that good.  With the Irish ranked 18^th in the pre-season USA Today Coaches poll and 16^th in the Associated Press poll, I guess it’s not out of the question, but let’s keep it a little more grounded for now.