LEAKED VIDEO of Brian Kelly's 7AM Good Bye Speech To The Team Was A Total Of 4 Minutes And 18 Seconds. You Can Watch It Here
Well this was basically a big nothing burger. I guess it's hard to give a heartfelt speech when you don't have one.
No claps at the end. No questions allowed. Just a quick "sorry it got leaked" at the beginning.
Kelly said simply that he wanted a new opportunity and a new challenge. Opportunity...go for it, man. $100M is a lot of money. That's a big opportunity, especially if ND wasn't going to pay that. We don't know if they wouldn't pay it for sure because he signed the deal with LSU before even talking to AD Jack Swarbrick.
The challenge part? Fuck off. You haven't finished this challenge. He walked into to Notre Dame and said that his goal was to win a National Championship. A goal that seemed like lip service when he said it in 2009 because of what Notre Dame fans and alumni had seen under Davie, Willingham, and Weis.
Then...it started to feel real. 2012 National Title appearance. Playoffs in 2018 and 2020. 10+ wins for 5 straight years. NFL guys everywhere. This past season started to feel like ND was actually knocking on the door. This was a rebuilding year that saw young players at every position, a rebuilt defense, a rebuilt offensive line, and a real future at quarterback. And beyond that...the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes are shaping up to be some of the strongest in the country and a level up from where ND has been in the last 10 years.
All of those things are great, but Kelly never finished his goal. Never met his challenge. He had been building this absolute master piece in South Bend for years and years and just when he was about to put the finishing touches on it and have God reach out and touch David's finger he opted for doing photoshop memes with snapchat filters at LSU.
None of it sits right with me. The timing, the callousness, not giving ND a chance to match, and leaving basically pre dawn after a bullshit speech. And it was bullshit. "I want what's best for you"...while trying to snatch every coach and leave the program in ruins. "You're one of the best 4 teams in the country"...but now you're fucked according to the committee because he quit. "You have tremendous talent"...but I need kids who can't spell SAT but can play in the SEC. "No one is at fault"...but, like...Kelly is here. The whole thing sounded like a Dad sitting his kids down to tell them he's leaving their mom for a side piece.
If he had just got up there and said "hey...they're paying me $100M" then I think everyone would be like "well...shit. Okay". That's not what he said. He's always been a politician.
Where ND goes from here is anyone's guess at this point. I will blog that more in the days and weeks to come as news comes out. There was this report that was widely shared including by me
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A few players reached out to me after I tweeted this and said the following
1) Senior Leadership did strongly advocate for Marcus Freeman to be the next head coach directly to Jack Swarbrick.
2) Marcus Freeman did NOT chew out Kelly for leaving. Some say Freeman wasn't there.
There's reports that Kelly is trying to bring Freeman and Rees with him to LSU. LSU would give them a bag too. I kind of think that ND should just pony up and pay both coordinators to stay. Give them title and salary bumps, keep this thing going, let Kelly start sweating on the Bayou by himself as ND pushes towards the playoffs and a future National Championship.