Well crap! Urban is at it again, stealing from the Irish. When he was at UF he pilfered coached and poached recruits from ND. Now he's doing it again at OSU, he's enticed RB coach Tim Hinton and OL coach Charlie Warriner away from the Irish, bastard! Hinton and Warriner did excellent jobs with our running game and I think Warriner will be a big loss. Kelly has moved Chuck Martin to OC/QB coach, and hired a GA already on the staff to coach DB's, Scott Booker who seems to be well thought of and who before coming to ND did a good job as a DB coach at Akron. Martin is some what controversial since he was a defensive coach for Kelly, but he has an offensive background in the offense that Kelly runs when he took over for Kelly at GVSU after Kelly left for CMU. No announcement yet as to who will replace Hinton and Warriner on the staff. OL coach is very critical hire for Kelly he needs to get a really good one. Staff Changes On the recruiting front nothing to report. Shepard and Greenberry still ND recruits and Westerkamp has still not decided if he's going to drop Neb and come to ND. Still waiting on Garnett to make a decision, some say he's going to UM, some say Stanford. He wants to be an MD after football and of course both have excellent Med schools, Irish undergrads have a very high acceptance into Med Schools all across the country though. He'd be a great pickup.
Terry there had been rumors here to what was taing place, but nothing official from the athletic department. I am not familiar with either coach, but they certainly have some years of experience.
This will be the winter of our discontent. Kelly who never had more than a tenative backing from most ND fans when hired, not getting Stoops bitter for a lot of fans, now has most of that backing slipping away. Now many are upset that a defensive coach has been named OCoord/QB coach and that Warriner has left the staff either because Kelly didn't promote him or OSU offered him more money, or he just didn't like Kelly...who knows. Recruiting is up in the air, we have some excellent players who have given their verbal but the best of them are still talking about taking visits (Darby) and one of them who was so solid just a week ago (Taylor Decker) is now confused since his recruiter, OCoord and position coach are all gone and he hasn't heard from Kelly. If Kelly is able to fill out his staff quickly and hold on to and expand the class and finish in the top 10 he'll gain back a little confidence. If Golson wins the QB job in Spring Drills he'll get some more, but if after Spring Drills he says Tommy Rees is still #1, there will be a firestorm. Rees is probably the most villified ND QB I can remember, even more so than Ron Powlus.
I see that the Irish Mens Hockey team is playing the "Russian Red Stars" tonight. I assume it's an exhibition game. Are the Red Stars made up of the Russians not already on the Red Wings roster?
Tim, I'm sorry you deleted your post. I applaud you for calling out the negativity and downright idiocy among a small but vocal segment of ND fans. We need more Tims to represent the silent and sensible majority. For what it's worth, I am of the same mind as you.
I didn't see Tim's post, and wondered what it was he changed to "never mind"...so I'm glad that you saw it Sid. I have to say I am concerned about Kelly. I'm not in the group calling for his firing or looking for ways to criticize him. Next year will be a very difficult schedule and 8 wins might be the max for next year and many are saying 6-6 will be more likely. I have no doubt that he will be our coach in 2013, but that will be the make or break year for him. I doubt if Kelly could have seen the degree of scrutiny that ND fans and the media give to the HC. Some of his problems are self inflicted, such as the ill advised comments after the USC game. But I'm still hoping that he can get the offense being consistenly productive, he seems to have the defense well in hand.
More news from NDW ( Notre Dame West ) and Chollie Weis: Rob Ianello, former ND coach and recruiter, has joined Charlie Weis on Kansas's coaching staff, the university announced this afternoon. Ianello served very briefly as Notre Dame's interim coach after leading the wide receivers and recruiting effort in South Bend under Weis. He joins Ron Powlus (QB coach), Dayne Crist (QB) and Tim Grunhard (OL coach) in the large contingent of Jayhawks with ties to South Bend. Chollie Jr. is transferring from Florida .as well. The girls are prettier in Kansas. 8)
I wonder if any Weis recruit who is not offered a 5th year at ND..cough, cough, John Goodman will find their ways to KU?
ND <t>Sid, Terry,<br/> <br/> I'm just trying not to get drawn into this pi**ing match and say something I'll probably regret lately, which I have done many times in the past...just can't help myself. <br/> <br/> I just don't believe Kelly has been given enough time to start making judgements about whether or not he will be successful. Yes, he has made some mistakes...and I'm sure he'll make more but when you look at the way his teams have performed in the first 2 years against former coaches you have to say there is improvement. Some of the games against BSC teams under Weis/Willingham were just outright embarrassing! We've probably had only one like that with Kelly and it was Navy and he more than corrected that. We have the best defense in years and ......well I'm only gonna say that I'm not passing judgement on him until after next season.</t>
:wink: For the record...I support Kelly too, despite tossing many criticisms at him, I still believe that he will get this turned around. One look at the defensive line proves that he knows what he's doing. Under Davie/Willingham/Weis all I ever heard was that it's "nearly impossible to recruit great Dlinemen to ND, because most DLinemen aren't smart enough to get in." Kelly has proven that to be untrue, as he has snagged one outstanding DLineman after another and they're still coming. IMHO- When Kelly solves the QB problem most of the criticism will evaporate into thin air...
I support Kelly as well, and I agree with JO'Co if he gets the QB situation fixed we'll be fine, the defense is the best it's been in awhile and it's young. He has some more defensive help on the way.
I think he could work out if he hired a real OC and let him call the plays. And if he gets a hold of his emotions which got the best of him repeatedly this year. Unfortunately the schedule dictates that hew will have to improve rather quickly. 8 wins next year would be doing very, very well.
Bull crap. I watched both Muschamp and Pellini consistently act like raving madmen this past week, and no one here or anywhere else uttered a freaking word. All of you who think Kelly is so wrong for blowing his stack a la Lou Holtz in one or two games....you tell me why no one says anything about those idiots Muschamp and Pellini, yet you and the media skewer Kelly. And don't tell me more is expected of the Notre Dame coach. Kelly is the best coach we've had since Lou Holtz to get our program moving in the right direction. He's making solid progress under trying circumstances that did not exist 15, 20, 30 years ago. The college football landscape has changed while we were suffering under three inferior coaches, and it's a longer road to catch up than it was in the past. If you don't understand that, then I can't help you. Carry on.
We never mention Muschamp and Pellini, because we don't care about them. Who do they coach for? We care about Notre Dame.
Sid, I'm not looking for help and I don't care about other coaches. I was watching the MSU-Georgia game when the Spartan QB threw an INT to start the overtime period. That coach stayed composed and coached his team through that near disaster and on to victory. Same thing last night in the UM-VaTech game. Michigan blows a good lead against a good team yet Hoke stays cool and coaches his team through it. My contention is that a top HC must retain his demeanor and composure on the sidelines in battle. This game is just too fast and intricate to allow for meltdowns and Kelly's last a long time. You can't lose your cool and make sound decisions. An don't forget; he insists on calling all his own plays as well. How many times this year did we burn TOs early because of plays not getting in on time? Something's gotta give.
nd <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> I couldn't agree more. <E>8)</E> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Michigan won that game because of some dumb calls by the VT coaching staff and a lot of luck like they did most of the season. Hoke had very little to do with it. VT was the better team all night and certainly handled D. Robinson.</r>
You have to have the presence of mind to take advantage of breaks the other team gives you. All I know is that Michigan is 11-2 and won their BCS Bowl game and we were 8-5 and lost the Champs Bowl. And we have a better team than Michigan. I guess they're just lucky guys!
Michigan just had one of those seasons where some critical things went their way, but you have to be able to take advantage of them and they did. Hoke off to a good start, what else can you say.