Brian Kelly and The Spread Offense Headed to South Bend

Well it didn't take long this time.  We landed Brian Kelly, a lot of Irish fan's first choice, relatively quickly after dismissing Charlie Weis.  Last time we moved far too slowly and missed out on our chance to get Urban Meyer.  We had to settle for Charlie Weis.

We didn't hesitate on the opportunity to get Urban Meyer 2.0.  Despite reports from Mardy Gilyard, Cincinnati's star wide receiver, that Kelly was staying with the Bearcats Brian Kelly was introduced as Notre Dame's next head football coach.  I understand that the Bearcats are frustrated that they lost their coach before their biggest game of their program's history.  Oh well, those are the breaks.

I am particularily excited that Brian Kelly decided not to coach the Sugar Bowl and get to work with the Irish now.  It's good to have our guy in place, our future in place, and now we have someone to go out and start recruiting.  Now recruits who were on the fence will make up their mind one way or the other.  Kelly may get some to decide to stay, and some may not like his spread offense.  At least we have our pieces in place for next year so we can start selling recruits on the Notre Dame program.

Personally I theorize that Jimmy Clausen may have seen the writing on the wall that a spread style offense was on it's way to South Bend.  Jimmy Clausen is a great quarterback however his style of play doesn't fit a spread offense.  That may have helped make up his mind to forego his senior season and start making money in the NFL.  (the) Dayne (train) Crist fits much better into a spread style attack.  Hopefully Crist is all healed up by the time next season rolls around. 

Losing Clausen hurts, but losing Golden Tate may hurt worse.  That man carried our team when we lost Michael Floyd.  Golden Tate played with heart and always gave 100% no matter what.  He would go up and get a ball, he would catch an out route, go over the middle, run the wildcat, basically do whatever it took.  Thankfully we still have Floyd.

Coming from success at Central Michigan and the University of Cincinnati's Brian Kelly has shown he doesn't need a plethora of 4 and 5 star players to have success.  If he can lead the Bearcats to the Sugar Bowl with their less than stellar roster, imagine what he can do with Notre Dame.

One big knock of Charlie Weis was his inability to beat ranked opponents.  It seemed that Charlie couldn't compel the team to get up for big games.  Well Brian Kelly is 9-3 in his career against top 20 teams.  That is a very good thing for the Irish.  Perhaps our drought against USC can end sometime soon.

Overall I am very pleased with this choice.  Outside of Bob Stoops, Brian Kelly was my first choice for this job.  I am glad we got a coach who has experience, and success at the college level as a head coach.  I look forward to next year I am curious to see what Brian Kelly can do for this progam.