Frank Commentary
Last night I was talking with my wife after Notre Dame’s 11th win of the season and we were basking in the sound of both joy and peace and quiet. My Sundays have been wonderful. How about yours?
No major bickering back and forth to police on the boards. No refereeing two sides who both want the same thing, but just disagree about how or why they haven’t gotten there yet.
No name-calling. No melt downs. No cancelations.
Just joy and peace and quiet. You forget how much fun this job can be when they’re winning.
As good as my Sunday’s have been, and weeks leading up to Saturdays, they can’t be as good as they are for Brian Kelly.
I’ll admit it, BK. When the 2016 Irish limped to 4-8, and it was learned you’d be retained, I would’ve given you about a 10 percent chance to be successful.
I felt there was too much to change. Even if you got most of the changes and hires right, it would be too much to ask to get them all right. I had very little faith that you’d be successful.
I was wrong.
I was trying to think back to any similar situation in coaching at this level. Where a head coach replaced his offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special teams coach, and S&C coach, the four pillars of the program, and was successful after those changes? Then you add the hires of Terry Joseph, Tom Rees and Del Alexander to that mix as well as a few other key hires?
How could that all possibly work and be successful?
Well, it did, and it has been successful, and I was wrong.
I often wonder if BK sits up there at the podium with a little chuckle in the back of his brain? He knows most of the media have been critical of him at times, myself included, but in the end he’s still standing, and standing tall. One game away from a playoff berth two years after 4-8.
Since I can’t sit down and buy BK a beer and laugh about my doubting that he’d be in this place now, consider this your beer, BK. And, my public admittance that I was wrong. You’ve earned the beer, the pat on the back, and my public falling on my sword.
I was wrong, and an honorable guy needs to admit when he is wrong.
My doubts were not about thinking he couldn’t do the job. My doubts were that I wasn’t sure he could change so many pieces to the puzzle at one time and make it all work. And, as he has admitted, he had to change himself, and that might be the hardest part of the job.
I didn’t believe, and I’m certain I wasn’t alone in my thinking. Thankfully, BK got his team to buy in and believe, and here we sit now, one game away from a playoff.
Just think about that for a minute. It’s really quite remarkable, when you really think about it. I cannot think of any other coach in history who has been successful changing so much and having it work?
They say a team takes on the personality of their coach. I think that’s very true when you consider this 2018 team. It isn’t always pretty, but they find a way to get it done each week. Almost everyone in the country who isn’t a Notre Dame fan has been doubting this team. Many are looking for any reason they can find to push them out of the playoff, and when it matters most, a lot of those “great” teams struggled yesterday, but not the Irish. While it wasn’t a pretty 36-3, it was still 36-3, and should’ve been a much bigger margin of victory---that’s how much better ND was than the No. 12 team in the country.
I don’t think anyone is going to suggest Michigan should be put in front of Notre Dame this week, or any other team.
One game left, and the transformation is complete. I have strong faith BK and his team will get it done.
They call Michigan’s season “the Revenge Tour.” Well, they’re already one game short of that being a success, thanks to BK and the Irish, and that’s something we can chew on for almost another year, and it tastes so sweet!
But this is 2018 season for the Irish is the “Settle All Family Business Tour.”
And like Michael Corleone, I have a feeling BK is going to be the last man standing.
Just one game left, and Michael Corleone is coming for you in L.A., Carlo.