Well during his pressor today Coach Kelly cleared up all the hub-bub about his NFL interview/status etc. that for me anyway, made me feel better about him. Here is the portion where he adresses it: The first question Kelly fielded was about his interview with the Philadelphia Eagles. The meeting with Eagles owner Jeff Lurie came just hours after Notre Dame's Jan. 7 loss to Alabama in the BCS Championship Game. Kelly believes the process began soon after the Eagles fired former head coach Andy Reid on Dec. 30. "Protocol in the NFL is to reach out to the athletic director," Kelly began as he recounted the chain of events. "They reached out to Jack (Swarbrick), Jack called me (and) we agreed that we would not have any contact with the Eagles if in fact we did and that wasn't certain until, obviously, after the game." "Subsequently, my agent was involved in talking and setting up a meeting with the Eagles on Tuesday when I was in Nashville accepting the American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year Award," Kelly continued. "If there was anything that I would have done differently it would have been to close that time line relative to my interview and coming out with a statement." Kelly said he was on vacation with his wife and simply should have released a statement sooner than he did. That statement did not come until Jan. 12. He added the interaction with the Eagles was not a distraction leading up to and during the Alabama game, because he was never certain that he would actually ever interview. "It really wasn't even on my radar," Kelly said. "So there was never any consideration. It wasn't an option." In the end, Kelly says satisfying his own curiosity about the NFL is what the entire dalliance was all about. "College is all that I've been involved in," Kelly explained. "I really didn't understand the NFL process - the game, who's involved in the day-to-day operations of selecting the team - all of those things. Quite frankly, I wanted to answer those so I would have to go through this (again), because we're gonna win again next year and there's probably going to be teams that are gonna have an interest in coaching in the NFL and I want to be able to tell them definitively that I want to coach in college." The other group of people Kelly must now pass that message along to are Notre Dame recruits. National signing day is just over a week away, so he is seeing many of those players face-to-face. "I tell them up front that I'm committed to Notre Dame," Kelly said of his message to Irish recruits. "(I'm) flattered that the NFL would want me to be one of their coaches, but it's just not what I want to do. I want to be a college football coach. Kelly says he first addressed the situation with the Eagles with his team this past Sunday night at 7 p.m. The only other issue regarding Kelly's future that still needs to be resolved is a contract extension. He says he and Swarbrick have had discussions "since December" about a new deal." "We both want the same thing and that is the long term consistency of the program," Kelly explained. "I think the best way I could say it is that Jack and I are in lock step on how we want to continue to build this program, so I feel really good about that."
"Quite frankly, I wanted to answer those so I would have to go through this (again), because we're gonna win again next year at least until we play the SEC and there's probably going to be teams that are gonna have an interest in coaching in the NFL and I want to be able to tell them definitively that I want to coach in college." Honest guy.....I like his straightforward attitude....... :wink:
If I was a Notre Dame admin, I think I would keep a running list of possible head coaching candidates on hand....just in case.
I think KP's advice is sound. Since we are still paying Chollie, maybe we can get him back on the sidelines. :lol: