I have been and still am a Kelly supporter. However after the firings over the weekend of
Notre dame defensive coordinator Brian VaGorder and LSU head football coach Les
Miles I decided to think a bit more about the man leading the hopes and dreams
of millions of loyal Irish fans, Brian Kelly.
Let’s take a look at his body of work in South Bend.
2010: 8 wins vs. 5 losses and a Sun Bowl 33-17 win over the
Miami Hurricanes. Following up on
Charlies Weis’s 2009 campaign of 6-6 and no bowl appearance things were looking
up.
2011: Another 8 -5 record but this time with an 18-14 loss
to a Jimbo Fisher lead Florida State Team.
No improvement but a lot of talk about “wait until he gets his players
in there”.
2012: An unbelievable and an unexpected 12-1 season earning the
Irish a trip to the National Championship game.
Even though Kelly and his team got demolished 42-14 by a team that some
thought could beat some NFL teams in Alabama, the slogan of wait till next year
sounded promising for once.
2013: A hiccup year going 9-4 with 29-16 win over a 6-6
Rutgers team in the Pinstripe Bowl left fans feeling a bit flat. Note that this was the same season that
Florida State won the National Championship just two years after playing the
same 8-4 record Seminoles.
2014: Back to 8-5 with what may be Kelly’s signature win in
a 31-28 victory over a Les Miles coached LSU squad. At least the bowl win left fans feeling
satisfied with the season on some level.
2015: 10-3 sounds pretty good until you realize that the
three losses were again to teams in the upper echelon of college football
meaning we can beat those we are supposed to but not those we need to. This season seem to capture the essence of Kelly
teams; signature losses (almost beat Clemson and Stanford) and when it comes to
Major Bowls we get clobbered in a 44-28 loss to USU and it wasn’t that close.
So what do we have?
One great season in 2012, one a little better than good season in 2015, one
barley good season in 2013 and three fair at best seasons in 2010, 2011 &
2014. Remember that any season not in the
hunt or discussion of a National Championship should be considered subpar.
There is a lot to like about Kelly but…
No comments:
Post a Comment