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Kelly blasted by ESPN

You would've thought the entire program was in disarray prior to the Navy game. Give Brian Kelly credit for rallying the troops and bringing the team together for their best game of the year.

Comments

  1. Hey Ed, I am the guy who contacted you via facebook and was directed to this page. I have a few questions:

    1. How do you think that players will respond to extra hard attention that coach kelly will give them this week.

    2. Why do you think that the USC players were able to respond so well their game plan (remember that they did not have any fumbles, interceptions, nor personal foul calls).

    3. I know that Kelly has a great coaching record which means he can coach but why arent the players able to respond to his coaching? Does he simply need to be given time to get his own recruits in key positions before they team can do well?

    3. Given that USC was able to dominate ND, is it fair to assume that some of the former ND opponent were not as good as we thought?

    4. I dont know much of Kelly's history in terms of his demeanor before he arrived at ND but I imagined that he had a good rep b/c ND would have been less likely to take him. It is fair to say that the enormous pressure of coaching at ND is getting to him and it is also fair to say that coaching at ND is a pressure cooker for any coach?

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  2. Wow, when I listened to this, I couldn't believe how close Ed's thoughts mirrored my own. In particular, how bone headed it was to play musical QB's and using 3 different QB's in one series. I had made this same point on a number of boards before hearing your podcast. After not playing for 6 weeks and then coming in and starting to get in a rythym, Kelly gets cute and puts in Hendrix for one play. It didn't throw USC off balance at all, but it sure did ND. In addition, after coming back in, he puts Crist under center - now how many snaps do you think Crist has been getting under center the last few weeks - I'm sure not many. Your point about realizing that this was an ND moment and letting Crist play totally escaped him, and I wouldn't doubt that in the back of his mind , he was worried about that because, then he thought he might have a QB controversy on hand. Ergo, avoid that by putting in Hendrix.

    The coaches also need to take some heat for the backward pass and fumble. Unless your are running an option pass with the halfback, you must absolutely make sure that a swing pass is forward. This should have been drilled home and practiced to death until it is automatic in the game. And I hate to even get into the wasted plays of the options. ND ran the ball a total of "9" times the entire game to Woods and Gray combined and two of those are poorly executed options

    Kelly seemed more concerned with gold helemts, stadium music and fan participation than getting his guys ready to Kick some USC butt. And now last night Kelly is pining for a Jumbotron. It wasn't a Jumbotron or lack of an excited crowd that caused that loss - it was poor preparation, lack of intensity, and poor coaching decisions. Lou Holtz used to say that players should play, coaches should coach, officials should officiate, and administrators should administrate,and there should be no overlap therebetween. I really wish kelly would just concentrate on coaching this team and getting them prepared to take it to Navy. I sure hope we don't go into the passive read mode - you have to attack the option. Funny, Kelly talked about the players taking a step forward and then one back, he needs to look in the mirror first on that one. I really hope they can pull it together these last 5 games and make some good progress.

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  3. Hey guys! I think the date of the blog is messed up and therefore not available in iTunes. Just FYI.

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  4. One thing to add to Ed's comments about how crisp Crist looked throwing the ball againts Navy. I didn't hear him mention the nice fake on roll out of pocket left where he got the defender to leave his feet, and then Crist ran for the first down. Just haven't seen Rees capable of making a play like that, and that dimension sure is nice to have. Even Barley whos is not a running QB in anybody's book faked out ND players several times and tucked the ball to get key first down's. It really hurts not having that extra dimension, but Kelly is stuck on Rees, and Crist will only play in mop up or if Rees injured. Crist should have been brought in against Wake, but Kelly isn't going to let him a chance at success.

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  5. C'mon guys! How about a new blog? :)

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  6. I enjoy listening to both of your comments as well. Hopefully they'll be a new one soon!

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