December 7, 2021 • 32 mins
Randall and Reuben discuss the departure of Brian Kelly to LSU and the hire of Marcus Freeman as head coach. Coach Freeman talked about the qualities he looks for in recruiters and that's good news for Notre Dame football moving forward.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
You're listening to Irish Sports Talk.Hello Nor Dame fans, Welcome to Irish
Sports Talk. This is episode sixhundred nineteen. I'm Rubin and joined by
Randall. Randall, how's it going. It's going good. I'm still trying
to decide what accent I'm gonna useto see the cater to our audience here.
(00:24):
Should we try a Southern accent ordo we go with the Boston one
or maybe an Irish one? Yes. So, lot's happened in the last
two weeks since we last recorded,and I want to spend I think most
of the time talking about the pressconference from earlier this week and what we
what our real perception is of NotreDame heading forward, what's gonna change,
(00:47):
what's gonna be different, what's gonnabe better, what might what might we
be missing? As well? BecauseBrian Kelly did a lot of good things
at Notre Dame, and right nowI haven't heard anyone say a good thing
about Brian Kelly from the Notre Dameside of things as far as sports media
and fans. I'mn't even sure.I've wanted to go into LSU sites and
check. I haven't. I'm noteven sure they're excited. Well, I'm
(01:11):
sure they are, but yeah,looking back, the Stanford game seems so
long ago. Um, we haven'teven recorded since, and it just seems
like it was a distant memory.And yeah, everything suddenly. When I
first started hearing the room, Iwas like, yeah, whatever, like
we hear this all the time.But then all of a sudden, you
(01:34):
know, stuff started to change.I really, okay, this this is
legit. You started seeing stuff fromplayers and very shocked, Sayley, which
I think everybody was. Yeah,and I do think now that everybody is
very anti Kelly, which I amas well. Um, but there's also
(01:55):
a lot there's also other faction intolike one of the one of the one
thing we didn't even talk about itbefore that I noticed, like, um
so the coaching situation this was terrible. Brian Kelly did was absolutely horrible.
He's the only coach to ever doit, and he did it twice now
to leave a team that was insuch like out of the I think it's
(02:15):
out of twelve coaches that have leftafter a team is won at least eleven
games, all except two have beenbecause of you know, getting an NFL
job, resign or resigning or somethingdue to scandals or getting fired due to
scandals. The two that have leftfor other coaching job college other college job
(02:38):
was Brian Kelly. No one,nobody else does this, and then the
way he did it as well isjust BA Now I keep on going.
But the one thought I had was, well, did the other coaches coaches
change jobs all the time? Yeah? Did the other coaches just mail it
in that entire year and have nota great record? And that was that,
(02:59):
you know, did they leave theirteam an off year? Possibly?
So there's there's a few things thatI think. So first of all,
you the players do a podcast,A few of the players, Kyle hamp
some of them do a podcast,and I didn't see all of it,
but there which this was kind oftheir initial reaction is to as well.
(03:19):
But they were upset at the mediamore than Brian Kelly, even just because
they talked about how that the coachesalmost don't even have a chance to tell
the players sometimes because there's such ait's such a big thing about being the
first one to release the story andthat's how it is. And what they
talked about was just how the mediadoesn't even give coaches a chance. I
(03:44):
mean, I'm sure there was opportunitiesthere for Brian Kelly do. But it's
also the media like it's it's aboutbeing the first one to break the story.
Well, here's what annoys me aboutnor Dame sports media. Everyone now
is talking about how of a journyBrian Kelly is and how they've heard all
these stories. But you never wouldhave thought that the last ten years.
He would have thought Brian Kelly isthe greatest guy ever. And I know
(04:08):
there's a balance between you don't wantto be gossiping and just you know,
ragging on a person, just tellingall the bad stuff. You don't want
to do that, But there's alsoa balance where you don't have to be
kissing. But to the point wherea coach sounds like a saint, and
then as soon as he's not fired, as soon as he leaves, you
just start talking about all the badstuff. That's that's just if you don't
want to sit before, don't staynow exactly, this is a good example
(04:31):
that just now the whole conference.Now, Brian Kelly, you know,
wasn't a player's coach, Like that'sthat's a big thing he said. He
is, you know, obviously he'snot. We all know that, um.
But comments were made about how othercoaches, like especially Day at Ohio
State, like his office is rightin the front. You know, all
the players have to walk past himto get to the practice facility, so
(04:55):
he sees all of them, interactsthem, blah blah blah. Well,
Brian Kelly's coach is in in theback corner, you know, and the
players barely have access, don't evenknow it's there. On and on,
and that just shows you what itis. Then a little while later it's
like, oh, Freeman's gonna lovethat office back in the corner. This
is I was illustrated. Yeah Ididn't. I didn't listen to it,
but Randall was telling me, justI'm not gonna do that stuff. So
(05:18):
I'm gonna when I think Brian Kellydid a good job, I'm gonna say
it. When I think he dida bad jo, I'm gonna say it
too. And obviously we don't haveaccess to these coaches or but that kind
of stuff for us. But that'sjust yeah, that's just irritating because Freeman's
office is still going to be inthe back. They're not gonna just remodel.
Maybe they will, but they're notjust gonna remodel his office is he's
not going to be in the frontlike, So don't try to use that
(05:41):
to anyways. But what I wassaying, like the media was one thing.
The other thing that factors into thisis part of the reason the coaching
stuff happens to it because obviously theOklahoma Lincoln Riley leaving like all that was
kind of was the same thing.Everybody thought that was terrible and it wasn't
even as bad as this. Butsome of these coaching hires and stuff have
to have happened because of the earlysigning period, and so that's what they're
(06:03):
that's what they're fighting. Some ofthese coaching vacancies have to be filled,
you know, before the early signingperiod. So I think, like the
with the recruiting stuff, that stuffis advancing, you know, the early
signing period. I'm all for that, like get it out of the way,
get it done, But I alsothink they need to put some rules
(06:24):
in place as far as what theycan do with coaching hires and stuff.
Because even Brian Kelly, he's atLS, you know, but he's not
even gonna be coaching the Bowl game, like they have an interim coach that
will be coaching that game. BrianKelly will obviously to be there, but
he won't be coaching it. Sofor the player's sake, yeah, I
understand all that, but there's gotto be a way to redo this,
to make it work to where well, the problem is the signing period.
(06:47):
Okay, before the season starts.Here's what I'm gonna say. The problem
is this would work what they're doingwith all the coaches until you have a
shyster coach like Brian Kelly doing whathe did. So it's on Kelly too,
Like it's not just the rules,but I also think it would help
the players feel better and more confidentin things, because you know, every
(07:09):
LSU player had knows that in theirmind. I mean, it was a
thing. Brian Kelly even had tokind of fight coming into Notre Dame because
of the way how he left Cincinnati. There was talking about, well is
he going to do this to NotreDame at some point? You know that's
I feel like there should be somethingin place because of the players, because
it's not fair that the coaches jumparound, are allowed to jump around?
(07:30):
Is it better that they finished therecruiting cycle, and then they need to
finish the bowl games. That's wherethe current players. Yeah, you're not
talking about for No, for thecurrent players. No, finish the bowl
games and then do all this stuff. Because here's the thing, LSU Brian
Kelly wanted that job he has takenoff. If he waits to laugh for
(07:53):
the bowl game, somebody else isgoing to have that job and you don't
have. I was professional sports asdifferent, but think of this. You
know what he did. My friendand I were talking about this, like,
you know, you don't have acoach like in the majors pro sports,
a coach doesn't leave, you know, in the playoffs because somebody offers
him double the money because they're notallowed to do that. You know,
(08:15):
a coach might leave for double themoney even though his team is good,
but he's not going to do itin the middle of the playoffs or right
before because they're not allowed to dothose things. So either I think they
should move up the bowl games.Honestly, there's a month, Like there's
a month starting December. Yeah,there's a month before Notre Dame even plays
their bowl game. Like, moveit up, do it for the player's
(08:39):
sake. I mean, anyways,we could go on and on about that.
That's just my I'm just throwing somethings out there that I think this
whole coaching stuff is isn't fair tothe students, the current students, and
maybe maybe it would help. Maybeyou just move the season back so that
you still have most of the ballgames over Christmas break. You can't with
(09:01):
school doesn't start soon. You know, they're already there before the other students
a lot of times because the studentathletes are often there before the rest of
the students are even on campus,like for fall camp and stuff. So
you can't really do it. Youhad the biggest gap between the end of
the season and the bowl games andswitch it around. Like I understand,
(09:22):
they probably do it for the money, but you know whatever, the the
Cheetos or the who knows, theSnickers Bowl is coming up, I mean,
nobody cares about that. Why notplay the important ones first. A
team that's like six and six isgoing to play in that small bowl game.
May move that to the end.It probably couldn't get people to watch,
(09:45):
but I think something could be done, and it should be done for
the student's sake, so that whenyou have a shyster coach, it doesn't
hurt them as much. But watchinghow it all went down the short a
few minutes, you know, meetingthat Kelly had with the players and he
(10:05):
had to walk up the stairs outthe back of the room and the players
did nothing. There was no clap, there was no good buy it,
there was nothing like you know,it's more you hear there was stuff going
on like it wasn't surprised a swardwit, which I think that was because
some of the contract stuff. Andbut you feel bad for these student and
(10:26):
I think the way but you do. But at the end of the day,
I feel they feel like they're betterout. I feel like everybody in
the program that's still at Notre Dame, the fan base, I think everybody
feels like the program is in abetter spot today. Okay, let's talk
about the press conferences from earlier thisweek. There was there was one thing
in particular that stood out that Ithink could be if nor Name's gonna be
(10:50):
better, I think it's because ofthis reason. Okay, I remember if
it was after one of the questions, but Marcus Freeman said that one of
the uh I think the question waswhat are two things somewhat too, What
are two things that are going tomake you different about Notre Dame And it
was or in maybe in hiring itwas this is what it was in hiring
(11:11):
assistance, What are what are youlooking for? His answer was we're going
to recruit the best players. Um, you need to be a relentless recruiter
and be a leader of young men. And he talked several times about recruiting
and that there are Notre Dame guysout there that don't know there they are
Notre Dame guys. I think thiscould be a revolution in recruiting. And
he said he's going to be thenumber one recruiter for every player, yeah,
(11:35):
to to what's possible, yeah,or the lead recruiter. I think
the quality of athletes is what's goingto take Notre Dame to the next level.
Yeah, well I think you know. And he had a good point
as well, you know, talkingabout how you know Notre Dame he's when
(11:56):
as a kids good name is likenow you have a coach, which first
of all, he's young. Isay he's young because he's my age for
the same age, So, um, there's so much more excitement there and
like his point like Notre Dame isnow the cool place. It's not an
old coach that's talking about the traditionall this. You have a guy that
(12:16):
playing in Ohio State, not thatlong ago. It was in two thousand
and nine. He played in theFiesta Bowl at Ohio State playing the NFL.
The only reason that ended was becauseof an enlarged heart. You know,
he wanted to keep playing. Andnow there's excitement there. I think
the players are on the popular TVshows. Yeah he was. He's been
(12:37):
on Colin Cowherd, Dan Patrick's show. He's been everywhere, which again is
going to help recruiting, at leastin the short term. Yeah, and
he was a recruit. He wasa guy that was recruited, went to
big time college. I didn't everexpect for such a fine gentleman to come
out of Ohio State. Now that'smaybe the biggest surprise I of this whole
thing. Um anyway, is like, and he mentioned that when you're fifteen
(13:03):
sixteen getting recruited, your goal isto win a championship, you know,
yes, and Notre Dame has alwaysbeen the forty year thing, Like what's
your plan afterwards? And he wantshe said, he wants to be able
to tell them that you want towin a championship, you come to Notre
Dame and then you start looking atother things. And I think that's what
a lot of those highly ranked guys, that's what they're after, is the
(13:26):
championship. They're not looking And Ithink he brings a difference perspective. He's
been in their shoes. He knowshow they think, and he knows what
they want and he can get themthere. And the truth is Notre Dame
is closer to that championship than theyhave been in a long long time.
And Brian Kelly and Swarbrick got themthere, so is Notre Dame. We've
(13:46):
complained often that Notre Dame isn't committedto winning at football, so we were
discussing this. They have made alot of progress, largely due to Brian
Kelly, largely due to Jack Swarbrick. But are they They're They're not as
committed as Ohio State Alabama. They'rejust not. And like we talked about
(14:09):
those other schools, if football goesaway for them, was taken away from
them, that would make a hugethat would cause huge issues for them financially.
And at Notre Dame, it doesn'tFootball could go away. Notre Dame
wouldn't care like they can operate.They had their thirteen billion in endowments and
(14:31):
the priorities are different, and justthe stories, like the stuff that's coming
out, you know, with allthis, I think Notre Dame Jack's warring
and Brian Kelly finally advanced them,got them past, got past the tradition
stuff. They got turf and therethey stadium upgrades, the JumboTron, the
fans standing during games, and solike, a lot has changed. And
(14:56):
I won't ever stop saying Brian Kellyhad a lot to do with that,
and he deserves credit for that,um but he's clearly a stepping stone in
the process to the championship and Iwill step on that stone. It didn't
happen, and Brian Kelly the wayhe left, I would have liked to
be able to cheer for him athis next spot, because I think I'm
(15:20):
out of our group of friends,I've been probably the biggest Brian Kelly supporter
and defender, and I do believehe was a big reason why they are
worth they're at right now. They'vebeen to the playoff a handful of time.
They're they're in a good place.But the way he left I can't
cheer for him completely change with thestat like, just how now you're hearing
(15:43):
about how he literally left a recruit'shouse recruiting him two Notre Dame when the
news started breaking, and you know, supposedly Reese um the Alexander, We're
in the car with him. Idon't know what always said. I've heard
different stories, but they were inthe vehicle, hadn't known about it when
(16:03):
this started breaking, Like can youimagine how awkward that conversation is. And
I do think I've heard that hedenied it at first, but eventually admitted
that he was going. And Ido think there's some truth to some of
that because of how Timmy Rees respondedwith his speech to the players and just
how he said he's staying at NotreDame. Um. But but what's that?
(16:26):
I mean, I think there don'tyou think there was a good chance
he was going to go with BrianKelly to lsu If Swarbick. When I
talked with him, Yeah, possiblyoffered. I don't know what was offered,
but yeah, Well here's one otherthing. Supposedly after like the fourth
(16:47):
game, lsu knew that they werethis was they were going to get a
new coach after this season. Soeven if Brian Kelly didn't know it,
his agents knew that he was inthe running for that job. And there
was a point where Swarbik said thathe understood that Brian that's things he could
see was restless. And then withthat, like the other thing is now
(17:10):
the stories are that you know,with Brian Kelly's contract, you know,
he was promised different things with upgrades, the Google training facility, just different
I don't know what all it was. But then that didn't happen, and
it was because of COVID didn't happenlast year. Yeah, and it didn't
happen. And so Brian Kelly wantedto renegotiate that, you know, want
(17:32):
to renegotiate his contract because he didn'tget it was a breach of contract.
And I don't like how notre Damehandled that. Suppose they just Swarbick was
like, no, he's not goingto do it. Okay, fine,
but it is a contract. Andonce you I know from personal experience,
when you have contracts like that,you know, once you can change things
(17:53):
stuff. But once that happens.It's just different. And it just showed
me that Notre Dame that football stillisn't the number one thing to the people
above Jack Swarbik. There's only somuch Swarbi can do. And that's frustrating
to me because, Okay, yeah, it costs money. They didn't want
(18:15):
to spend it, but they thatdoesn't matter to Notre Dame. Like you
mentioned, they just got one ofthe biggest donors that I didn't mentioned on
the podcast, but I remember afew weeks ago there was a huge donation
I think the biggest from a privateindividual to date. And I could have
looked at the number, but itwas it was a lot. Yeah,
and when you do that, like, I don't think other schools would do
(18:38):
that. Well, now you cansay, you know, we're talking with
some of our friends were like,well, good riddance. You don't want
that attitude around there with Brian Kelly. But if you don't want the coach
there, then fire him. Yeahexactly. Don't don't mess with the con
don't go back on your word,don't be willing to look at it and
renegotiate, you know, just becauseyou don't want to deal with it.
(19:00):
You don't like someone. You can'trun a business like that and be like
you have to. You're not successfuldoing like that. You're not going to
keep someone around because of feelings.You can't do it. You will not
be successful doing that. And sothat's why I still what I just hate.
I hate seeing that because I feelNotre Dame has come a long way.
Things have changed, but and Ihonestly see think Notre Dame can win
(19:25):
a championship even in the next fewyears, Like this is their best shot
that I have seen as a fan, like as Notre Dame football fan,
Like, I don't never know whenI felt more confident that they can win
a championship. But I still don'tsee them doing it multiple times, you
know, like three and five years, which that's on you. I mean
that's like you should be able toat Notre Dame, Like why should you
(19:48):
not be able to do that atNotre Dame? And I think the only
thing that keeps them from doing thatis how the people above Swarwick looks where
where football is in the priority Andthat's okay, except you're competing against Alabama,
Georgia, Clemson, these other schoolswhere football is the number one priority.
(20:11):
Yeah, and so that's that's whereI still struggle with with all that,
and anyways, we're getting in alot of that. I think that
I am so excited about Marcus Freeman. I mean the players. Jack Squart
even talked about how, um,you know, how he met with the
(20:32):
captains and how they changed his opinion. And I have never I don't think
there's ever been a case where recruitsplayers, previous players coaching sat It's like
fan have rallied around someone so likethey were hired anybody else, Like there
wu have been mutiny and south end. Yeah, but people do get over
(20:52):
it. But I appreciate what Jacksaid. It wasn't just because of that,
like they hired They hired him becausehe felt they felt he was the
best man for the job. Andwhat I was impressed with is that the
captains said, like, we're thereason for this culture, Like we helped
build this culture. We're part ofit. Like and you know, you
(21:15):
have to get Brian Kelly for creditfor getting them there, for getting these
players to where they're at and puttinggood leaders him and they have created a
culture there that is headed in theright direction. And Will I think Will
win them a championship eventually, andMatt Bayliss is a That's where Swarwick said
that the first for the first time, he based the promised the coach a
(21:37):
job, not knowing who the headcoach like, without getting you know,
anything from the head coach. That'susually left up to the head coach.
Yea. So it was good tolike to see that and to see how
much of an impact the players hadthey listened to them. And this isn't
just a coaching thing. What ishappening at not now as a culture,
(22:00):
like they said, And I thinkMarcus Freeman is walking to the perfect setup.
This is one of the best opportunities. He already knows how they operate.
And so speaking of he was,I thought of this today. He
even fits into the local community culture. He's got six kids, so he's
even fitting into the Amish culture hereand around South Fends. So Marcus was
(22:25):
asked about the offense, what hisstyle of offense is, and he said,
um, what they've been doing underTommy Reese is what he likes.
He likes production, so he reallydoesn't care what it is. He just
wants to see results. And soTommy Reese's hands are definitely, they're not
tied to anyone like this is goingto be Tommy Reese is gonna be on
(22:47):
him. Now you have a headcoach that's a defensive minded head coach instead
of offense in mind, like alot of what held back to offense was
what Brian Kelly wanted to do.We assume so and now now we'll know.
Now we'll know or Tommy Reeves willhave yes, yes, yeah,
exactly right. We're gonna find out. And I think it's it's gonna show
(23:10):
that he was kind of tied alittle bit to what Well, I'm really
curious we saw a shift halfway throughthe year after the bye week, and
so I'm really curious about how's thisoffense gonna look. Definitely in the bowl
game, I'm curious about that.But but next year more so. Yeah,
and it will look different just becausethey'll have a different starting quarterback.
So it looked different for that reasonas well. It will be different having
a defensive guy as a head coach, like we've just been so used to
(23:34):
Brian Kelly, like it's hard toremember anything different, Like, um,
all right, is there anything toupdate as far as recruiting, Well,
so they're gonna be out recruiting alot um. One guy Notre Dame didn't
have one D commitment. Of course, Brian Lsu was there to see him
a few days later, so thatwould be kind of interesting. But I
(23:57):
think a lot of these recruits,like we've often talked about, these guys
are committed to the school, notthe staff, and that's where transitions like
this are. Notre Dame is okaywith a lot of this um, but
they will be doing a lot ofrecruiting basically with the staff. They gotta
get some fair like now we needto do new defensive coordinator, so that'll
(24:18):
be kind of interesting to see whathappens there. Do you still you know
we wanted a home run higher MarcusFreeman, which I think was the best
obviously was the best to hire,but you know, is there going to
be as much of do we needa big name guy as a defensive cording
because now you have it's going tobe Marcus Freeman's defense. It is gonna
be Marcus Freeman, Marcus Freeman's defense. I do think uman I like having
(24:41):
a coach that can step back andmake sure everything's working well, not have
to be attention spent on one,one and half of the ball. So
I hope they do get a defensivecoordinator that maybe, yeah, maybe doesn't
have a ton of experience, butsomeone that doesn't in the long term doesn't
need to have their hands is heldand tight, tight down market Streeman.
(25:03):
Yeah, one of the good things. The coaches that we felt were the
weak links on the staff are leaving. Well, maybe it's the line coach
they had, Del Alexander. Iwas never if I had Del Alexander and
then I would have said, likeI just had the two. But then
with Brian Polian would have if I'dhave kept going, Brian Polian would have
(25:27):
been next on the list. AndBrian Polian is going to LSU, and
so I think it was good tosee that. What's the biggest shocker to
me with the staff is that MikeElston did not go. And I think
that shows you what he was finallytired of it. He's been promoted a
(25:51):
lot of times, never to acoordinator position, but he has been promoted.
I'm curious, Yeah, what hisI think is the associate was his?
Was he the associate head coach orsomething like that. I'm kind of
kept shifting around. Then that changebecause then he was headed the recruiting again.
Yeah, so but to see thathe stayed, I mean, obviously
(26:11):
he has his kids like that,there was always that stuff, and he's
a Notre Dame guy, but hehas followed Brian Kelly around. So right
now, I'm sure it looks likeBrian Kelly is a pretty lonely guy with
his Southern accent right now. ButI'm sure as things are happening there that
we're just not seeing like I wantto fall out with something that see what's
happening, because I guarantee you he'shaving a little bit of regret. He
(26:36):
hasked, Well, I wonder withhow it went down. Yeah, I
wonder how many guys who all didhe expect to go with him? Because
he did Marcus Freeman. I thinkit was the Coward show. He asked
Freeman to go with him. Well, they talked about it. I mean,
Freeman said he talked with his wifeabout it, and he was like,
I can't lead these I can't leadthe kids. And at first his
(26:59):
wife actually Pete Sampson mentioned this becausehe talked with his wife. Pete Sampson
mentioned this was Marcus Freeman's wife andshe said that. First he thought she
meant their kids, and she waslike, what do you mean, Like
you know that he would be leaving, you know, and there's like no
like the students, the football players, and you just hear, like what
was shocking to meet. We've gottenso used to hearing Brian Kelly and his
(27:22):
press conferences. But I think thereason people, the players, the fan,
everybody likes Marcus Freeman's because you cantell he's sincere. Yeah, we'll
see what happened. I want tosee how that goes on, as you
know, because there will be someas a head football coach, some of
that stuff. You know, it'skind of like politics. Once somebody can
(27:45):
be the greatest person wants to getinto politics, they just kind of go
downhill, doesn't matter who it is. Yeah, and I think some of
that will have to happen. Someof that will just naturally happen as a
head coach because you just of howyou have to handle things. But he's
Jane anyone that we're not sitting heretalking about how did he mean that?
Or was he just saying that toboost his player's confidence, whether like he
(28:06):
he just says it and it's refreshing. I think that's why the players banned
around him so much. So anyways, well, one thing that another positive
thing. I think it was onI'm pretty sure it was Cowhard Show he
talked about when he was interviewing him. The words that he heard describing Marcus
Freeman and humble was one of them, or not having an ego and just
(28:27):
wait, Ohio State alone, Iknow sounds crazy. He's been in department,
he's been relieved from there for awhile, so obviously it's his characters
that a chance to grow. UmNo, but yeah, being a humble
or ego lest I forget the exactwording, and then just being an incredibly
hard worker. Yeah, and andthose are two. Just yeah, he's
(28:48):
honest. Like I have no Icannot believe some of the stuff that's coming
out of Brian Kelly's mouth right now. The accent I wouldn't have put him.
I didn't think he would pull thatoff. I also didn't say he
would try to say that he's aplayers coach, like even Notre Dame is
taking jabs at him with that.He is not a players coach, like
everybody knows that. Well, Ithink Brian Kelly did did make some changes
(29:11):
in that area. I think hedidn't improve in that area. So when
you're comparing where he was at firstto where he ended up, I's very
true he made progress, That's verytrue. But yeah, anyway, it's
been an exciting two weeks. I'llI wish. I was hoping so bad
that Notre Dame could get into theplayoffs because the end of the year,
(29:33):
we were just hoping they get toa bowl game because the first here they
are. What we said is theyneed to win a major bowl game.
They have their opportunity, and Ilove their chances. But when it got
down to it, did you hearwhat you said? What he said?
At the beginning of the year,we were just hoping they'd make it to
a bowl game or I'm okay,major bow I know, but that's where
that's where No. Dame is atnow, where anything other than playoff or
(29:56):
New Year's six is a big disappointment. Is see the mark. So we
were just hoping to get to it. I had no chance. We didn't
expect them to make the playoffs,No, not at all. But then
they were in the conversation for itand they were so cool. I mean
the first team out. Yeah,and I do feel like with everything how
it went down the last few weeks, if they would have got it,
(30:17):
they would have had a good chairedup. Yes, the players would have
been and the coaches too would havebeen fired up. Curious, how is
this going to change? We talkedabout coaches leaving during this time when the
play when the playoff is expanded,because it's going to happen. Yeah,
when it's expanded and some of theseteams, more teams are making the playoff,
(30:40):
I'm just curious, who's gonna beour coaches actually gonna leave when they're
in the playoff. Hunt might actuallyhappen more because it's not as Yeah,
I don't know anyway, I understandsomething to oh what I was just saying,
Like they do. So here theyhave it. They're getting into a
big bowl game. I guarantee youif Notre Dame would be playing Saturday,
(31:02):
I don't care who they play,they could probably get a win. Like
there's just you've seen it with teams, bad teams firing their coach midway through
a year, you know, andthey go out and win the next year.
Like Notre Dame is at that placeright now they are fired up,
and I think they'll keep that goinginto the Festa Bowl, and I think
that Notre Dame will finally win theNew Year's Sixth Bowl. The sad thing
is, it's just it's the NewYear's Sixth Bowl, Like they can't use
(31:25):
that to go win the championship.So anyway, right, anything else?
No, I'm very excited. LikeI didn't expect to Brian. You know,
I defended him a lot over theyears, like I thought, you
know, I felt like people forgotwhere Notre Dame had been and where he's
gotten them, like I still do. I think people forgot how he what
he did for Notre Dame and howgood, how much has changed the consistency
(31:48):
and all that. But the wayhe left, like like he said,
like rooting for it's hard, LikeI'm I'm so done with him, and
I couldn't be more excited about whereNotre Dame is at with football right now.
Agreed, Thank you guys for listening. Until next time, go I reshtore
You're listening to Irish Sports Talk.Hello Nor Dame fans, Welcome to Irish
Sports Talk. This is episode sixhundred nineteen. I'm Rubin and joined by
Randall. Randall, how's it going. It's going good. I'm still trying
to decide what accent I'm gonna useto see the cater to our audience here.
(00:24):
Should we try a Southern accent ordo we go with the Boston one
or maybe an Irish one? Yes. So, lot's happened in the last
two weeks since we last recorded,and I want to spend I think most
of the time talking about the pressconference from earlier this week and what we
what our real perception is of NotreDame heading forward, what's gonna change,
(00:47):
what's gonna be different, what's gonnabe better, what might what might we
be missing? As well? BecauseBrian Kelly did a lot of good things
at Notre Dame, and right nowI haven't heard anyone say a good thing
about Brian Kelly from the Notre Dameside of things as far as sports media
and fans. I'mn't even sure.I've wanted to go into LSU sites and
check. I haven't. I'm noteven sure they're excited. Well, I'm
(01:11):
sure they are, but yeah,looking back, the Stanford game seems so
long ago. Um, we haven'teven recorded since, and it just seems
like it was a distant memory.And yeah, everything suddenly. When I
first started hearing the room, Iwas like, yeah, whatever, like
we hear this all the time.But then all of a sudden, you
(01:34):
know, stuff started to change.I really, okay, this this is
legit. You started seeing stuff fromplayers and very shocked, Sayley, which
I think everybody was. Yeah,and I do think now that everybody is
very anti Kelly, which I amas well. Um, but there's also
(01:55):
a lot there's also other faction intolike one of the one of the one
thing we didn't even talk about itbefore that I noticed, like, um
so the coaching situation this was terrible. Brian Kelly did was absolutely horrible.
He's the only coach to ever doit, and he did it twice now
to leave a team that was insuch like out of the I think it's
(02:15):
out of twelve coaches that have leftafter a team is won at least eleven
games, all except two have beenbecause of you know, getting an NFL
job, resign or resigning or somethingdue to scandals or getting fired due to
scandals. The two that have leftfor other coaching job college other college job
(02:38):
was Brian Kelly. No one,nobody else does this, and then the
way he did it as well isjust BA Now I keep on going.
But the one thought I had was, well, did the other coaches coaches
change jobs all the time? Yeah? Did the other coaches just mail it
in that entire year and have nota great record? And that was that,
(02:59):
you know, did they leave theirteam an off year? Possibly?
So there's there's a few things thatI think. So first of all,
you the players do a podcast,A few of the players, Kyle hamp
some of them do a podcast,and I didn't see all of it,
but there which this was kind oftheir initial reaction is to as well.
(03:19):
But they were upset at the mediamore than Brian Kelly, even just because
they talked about how that the coachesalmost don't even have a chance to tell
the players sometimes because there's such ait's such a big thing about being the
first one to release the story andthat's how it is. And what they
talked about was just how the mediadoesn't even give coaches a chance. I
(03:44):
mean, I'm sure there was opportunitiesthere for Brian Kelly do. But it's
also the media like it's it's aboutbeing the first one to break the story.
Well, here's what annoys me aboutnor Dame sports media. Everyone now
is talking about how of a journyBrian Kelly is and how they've heard all
these stories. But you never wouldhave thought that the last ten years.
He would have thought Brian Kelly isthe greatest guy ever. And I know
(04:08):
there's a balance between you don't wantto be gossiping and just you know,
ragging on a person, just tellingall the bad stuff. You don't want
to do that, But there's alsoa balance where you don't have to be
kissing. But to the point wherea coach sounds like a saint, and
then as soon as he's not fired, as soon as he leaves, you
just start talking about all the badstuff. That's that's just if you don't
want to sit before, don't staynow exactly, this is a good example
(04:31):
that just now the whole conference.Now, Brian Kelly, you know,
wasn't a player's coach, Like that'sthat's a big thing he said. He
is, you know, obviously he'snot. We all know that, um.
But comments were made about how othercoaches, like especially Day at Ohio
State, like his office is rightin the front. You know, all
the players have to walk past himto get to the practice facility, so
(04:55):
he sees all of them, interactsthem, blah blah blah. Well,
Brian Kelly's coach is in in theback corner, you know, and the
players barely have access, don't evenknow it's there. On and on,
and that just shows you what itis. Then a little while later it's
like, oh, Freeman's gonna lovethat office back in the corner. This
is I was illustrated. Yeah Ididn't. I didn't listen to it,
but Randall was telling me, justI'm not gonna do that stuff. So
(05:18):
I'm gonna when I think Brian Kellydid a good job, I'm gonna say
it. When I think he dida bad jo, I'm gonna say it
too. And obviously we don't haveaccess to these coaches or but that kind
of stuff for us. But that'sjust yeah, that's just irritating because Freeman's
office is still going to be inthe back. They're not gonna just remodel.
Maybe they will, but they're notjust gonna remodel his office is he's
not going to be in the frontlike, So don't try to use that
(05:41):
to anyways. But what I wassaying, like the media was one thing.
The other thing that factors into thisis part of the reason the coaching
stuff happens to it because obviously theOklahoma Lincoln Riley leaving like all that was
kind of was the same thing.Everybody thought that was terrible and it wasn't
even as bad as this. Butsome of these coaching hires and stuff have
to have happened because of the earlysigning period, and so that's what they're
(06:03):
that's what they're fighting. Some ofthese coaching vacancies have to be filled,
you know, before the early signingperiod. So I think, like the
with the recruiting stuff, that stuffis advancing, you know, the early
signing period. I'm all for that, like get it out of the way,
get it done, But I alsothink they need to put some rules
(06:24):
in place as far as what theycan do with coaching hires and stuff.
Because even Brian Kelly, he's atLS, you know, but he's not
even gonna be coaching the Bowl game, like they have an interim coach that
will be coaching that game. BrianKelly will obviously to be there, but
he won't be coaching it. Sofor the player's sake, yeah, I
understand all that, but there's gotto be a way to redo this,
to make it work to where well, the problem is the signing period.
(06:47):
Okay, before the season starts.Here's what I'm gonna say. The problem
is this would work what they're doingwith all the coaches until you have a
shyster coach like Brian Kelly doing whathe did. So it's on Kelly too,
Like it's not just the rules,but I also think it would help
the players feel better and more confidentin things, because you know, every
(07:09):
LSU player had knows that in theirmind. I mean, it was a
thing. Brian Kelly even had tokind of fight coming into Notre Dame because
of the way how he left Cincinnati. There was talking about, well is
he going to do this to NotreDame at some point? You know that's
I feel like there should be somethingin place because of the players, because
it's not fair that the coaches jumparound, are allowed to jump around?
(07:30):
Is it better that they finished therecruiting cycle, and then they need to
finish the bowl games. That's wherethe current players. Yeah, you're not
talking about for No, for thecurrent players. No, finish the bowl
games and then do all this stuff. Because here's the thing, LSU Brian
Kelly wanted that job he has takenoff. If he waits to laugh for
(07:53):
the bowl game, somebody else isgoing to have that job and you don't
have. I was professional sports asdifferent, but think of this. You
know what he did. My friendand I were talking about this, like,
you know, you don't have acoach like in the majors pro sports,
a coach doesn't leave, you know, in the playoffs because somebody offers
him double the money because they're notallowed to do that. You know,
(08:15):
a coach might leave for double themoney even though his team is good,
but he's not going to do itin the middle of the playoffs or right
before because they're not allowed to dothose things. So either I think they
should move up the bowl games.Honestly, there's a month, Like there's
a month starting December. Yeah,there's a month before Notre Dame even plays
their bowl game. Like, moveit up, do it for the player's
(08:39):
sake. I mean, anyways,we could go on and on about that.
That's just my I'm just throwing somethings out there that I think this
whole coaching stuff is isn't fair tothe students, the current students, and
maybe maybe it would help. Maybeyou just move the season back so that
you still have most of the ballgames over Christmas break. You can't with
(09:01):
school doesn't start soon. You know, they're already there before the other students
a lot of times because the studentathletes are often there before the rest of
the students are even on campus,like for fall camp and stuff. So
you can't really do it. Youhad the biggest gap between the end of
the season and the bowl games andswitch it around. Like I understand,
(09:22):
they probably do it for the money, but you know whatever, the the
Cheetos or the who knows, theSnickers Bowl is coming up, I mean,
nobody cares about that. Why notplay the important ones first. A
team that's like six and six isgoing to play in that small bowl game.
May move that to the end.It probably couldn't get people to watch,
(09:45):
but I think something could be done, and it should be done for
the student's sake, so that whenyou have a shyster coach, it doesn't
hurt them as much. But watchinghow it all went down the short a
few minutes, you know, meetingthat Kelly had with the players and he
(10:05):
had to walk up the stairs outthe back of the room and the players
did nothing. There was no clap, there was no good buy it,
there was nothing like you know,it's more you hear there was stuff going
on like it wasn't surprised a swardwit, which I think that was because
some of the contract stuff. Andbut you feel bad for these student and
(10:26):
I think the way but you do. But at the end of the day,
I feel they feel like they're betterout. I feel like everybody in
the program that's still at Notre Dame, the fan base, I think everybody
feels like the program is in abetter spot today. Okay, let's talk
about the press conferences from earlier thisweek. There was there was one thing
in particular that stood out that Ithink could be if nor Name's gonna be
(10:50):
better, I think it's because ofthis reason. Okay, I remember if
it was after one of the questions, but Marcus Freeman said that one of
the uh I think the question waswhat are two things somewhat too, What
are two things that are going tomake you different about Notre Dame And it
was or in maybe in hiring itwas this is what it was in hiring
(11:11):
assistance, What are what are youlooking for? His answer was we're going
to recruit the best players. Um, you need to be a relentless recruiter
and be a leader of young men. And he talked several times about recruiting
and that there are Notre Dame guysout there that don't know there they are
Notre Dame guys. I think thiscould be a revolution in recruiting. And
he said he's going to be thenumber one recruiter for every player, yeah,
(11:35):
to to what's possible, yeah,or the lead recruiter. I think
the quality of athletes is what's goingto take Notre Dame to the next level.
Yeah, well I think you know. And he had a good point
as well, you know, talkingabout how you know Notre Dame he's when
(11:56):
as a kids good name is likenow you have a coach, which first
of all, he's young. Isay he's young because he's my age for
the same age, So, um, there's so much more excitement there and
like his point like Notre Dame isnow the cool place. It's not an
old coach that's talking about the traditionall this. You have a guy that
(12:16):
playing in Ohio State, not thatlong ago. It was in two thousand
and nine. He played in theFiesta Bowl at Ohio State playing the NFL.
The only reason that ended was becauseof an enlarged heart. You know,
he wanted to keep playing. Andnow there's excitement there. I think
the players are on the popular TVshows. Yeah he was. He's been
(12:37):
on Colin Cowherd, Dan Patrick's show. He's been everywhere, which again is
going to help recruiting, at leastin the short term. Yeah, and
he was a recruit. He wasa guy that was recruited, went to
big time college. I didn't everexpect for such a fine gentleman to come
out of Ohio State. Now that'smaybe the biggest surprise I of this whole
thing. Um anyway, is like, and he mentioned that when you're fifteen
(13:03):
sixteen getting recruited, your goal isto win a championship, you know,
yes, and Notre Dame has alwaysbeen the forty year thing, Like what's
your plan afterwards? And he wantshe said, he wants to be able
to tell them that you want towin a championship, you come to Notre
Dame and then you start looking atother things. And I think that's what
a lot of those highly ranked guys, that's what they're after, is the
(13:26):
championship. They're not looking And Ithink he brings a difference perspective. He's
been in their shoes. He knowshow they think, and he knows what
they want and he can get themthere. And the truth is Notre Dame
is closer to that championship than theyhave been in a long long time.
And Brian Kelly and Swarbrick got themthere, so is Notre Dame. We've
(13:46):
complained often that Notre Dame isn't committedto winning at football, so we were
discussing this. They have made alot of progress, largely due to Brian
Kelly, largely due to Jack Swarbrick. But are they They're They're not as
committed as Ohio State Alabama. They'rejust not. And like we talked about
(14:09):
those other schools, if football goesaway for them, was taken away from
them, that would make a hugethat would cause huge issues for them financially.
And at Notre Dame, it doesn'tFootball could go away. Notre Dame
wouldn't care like they can operate.They had their thirteen billion in endowments and
(14:31):
the priorities are different, and justthe stories, like the stuff that's coming
out, you know, with allthis, I think Notre Dame Jack's warring
and Brian Kelly finally advanced them,got them past, got past the tradition
stuff. They got turf and therethey stadium upgrades, the JumboTron, the
fans standing during games, and solike, a lot has changed. And
(14:56):
I won't ever stop saying Brian Kellyhad a lot to do with that,
and he deserves credit for that,um but he's clearly a stepping stone in
the process to the championship and Iwill step on that stone. It didn't
happen, and Brian Kelly the wayhe left, I would have liked to
be able to cheer for him athis next spot, because I think I'm
(15:20):
out of our group of friends,I've been probably the biggest Brian Kelly supporter
and defender, and I do believehe was a big reason why they are
worth they're at right now. They'vebeen to the playoff a handful of time.
They're they're in a good place.But the way he left I can't
cheer for him completely change with thestat like, just how now you're hearing
(15:43):
about how he literally left a recruit'shouse recruiting him two Notre Dame when the
news started breaking, and you know, supposedly Reese um the Alexander, We're
in the car with him. Idon't know what always said. I've heard
different stories, but they were inthe vehicle, hadn't known about it when
(16:03):
this started breaking, Like can youimagine how awkward that conversation is. And
I do think I've heard that hedenied it at first, but eventually admitted
that he was going. And Ido think there's some truth to some of
that because of how Timmy Rees respondedwith his speech to the players and just
how he said he's staying at NotreDame. Um. But but what's that?
(16:26):
I mean, I think there don'tyou think there was a good chance
he was going to go with BrianKelly to lsu If Swarbick. When I
talked with him, Yeah, possiblyoffered. I don't know what was offered,
but yeah, Well here's one otherthing. Supposedly after like the fourth
(16:47):
game, lsu knew that they werethis was they were going to get a
new coach after this season. Soeven if Brian Kelly didn't know it,
his agents knew that he was inthe running for that job. And there
was a point where Swarbik said thathe understood that Brian that's things he could
see was restless. And then withthat, like the other thing is now
(17:10):
the stories are that you know,with Brian Kelly's contract, you know,
he was promised different things with upgrades, the Google training facility, just different
I don't know what all it was. But then that didn't happen, and
it was because of COVID didn't happenlast year. Yeah, and it didn't
happen. And so Brian Kelly wantedto renegotiate that, you know, want
(17:32):
to renegotiate his contract because he didn'tget it was a breach of contract.
And I don't like how notre Damehandled that. Suppose they just Swarbick was
like, no, he's not goingto do it. Okay, fine,
but it is a contract. Andonce you I know from personal experience,
when you have contracts like that,you know, once you can change things
(17:53):
stuff. But once that happens.It's just different. And it just showed
me that Notre Dame that football stillisn't the number one thing to the people
above Jack Swarbik. There's only somuch Swarbi can do. And that's frustrating
to me because, Okay, yeah, it costs money. They didn't want
(18:15):
to spend it, but they thatdoesn't matter to Notre Dame. Like you
mentioned, they just got one ofthe biggest donors that I didn't mentioned on
the podcast, but I remember afew weeks ago there was a huge donation
I think the biggest from a privateindividual to date. And I could have
looked at the number, but itwas it was a lot. Yeah,
and when you do that, like, I don't think other schools would do
(18:38):
that. Well, now you cansay, you know, we're talking with
some of our friends were like,well, good riddance. You don't want
that attitude around there with Brian Kelly. But if you don't want the coach
there, then fire him. Yeahexactly. Don't don't mess with the con
don't go back on your word,don't be willing to look at it and
renegotiate, you know, just becauseyou don't want to deal with it.
(19:00):
You don't like someone. You can'trun a business like that and be like
you have to. You're not successfuldoing like that. You're not going to
keep someone around because of feelings.You can't do it. You will not
be successful doing that. And sothat's why I still what I just hate.
I hate seeing that because I feelNotre Dame has come a long way.
Things have changed, but and Ihonestly see think Notre Dame can win
(19:25):
a championship even in the next fewyears, Like this is their best shot
that I have seen as a fan, like as Notre Dame football fan,
Like, I don't never know whenI felt more confident that they can win
a championship. But I still don'tsee them doing it multiple times, you
know, like three and five years, which that's on you. I mean
that's like you should be able toat Notre Dame, Like why should you
(19:48):
not be able to do that atNotre Dame? And I think the only
thing that keeps them from doing thatis how the people above Swarwick looks where
where football is in the priority Andthat's okay, except you're competing against Alabama,
Georgia, Clemson, these other schoolswhere football is the number one priority.
(20:11):
Yeah, and so that's that's whereI still struggle with with all that,
and anyways, we're getting in alot of that. I think that
I am so excited about Marcus Freeman. I mean the players. Jack Squart
even talked about how, um,you know, how he met with the
(20:32):
captains and how they changed his opinion. And I have never I don't think
there's ever been a case where recruitsplayers, previous players coaching sat It's like
fan have rallied around someone so likethey were hired anybody else, Like there
wu have been mutiny and south end. Yeah, but people do get over
(20:52):
it. But I appreciate what Jacksaid. It wasn't just because of that,
like they hired They hired him becausehe felt they felt he was the
best man for the job. Andwhat I was impressed with is that the
captains said, like, we're thereason for this culture, Like we helped
build this culture. We're part ofit. Like and you know, you
(21:15):
have to get Brian Kelly for creditfor getting them there, for getting these
players to where they're at and puttinggood leaders him and they have created a
culture there that is headed in theright direction. And Will I think Will
win them a championship eventually, andMatt Bayliss is a That's where Swarwick said
that the first for the first time, he based the promised the coach a
(21:37):
job, not knowing who the headcoach like, without getting you know,
anything from the head coach. That'susually left up to the head coach.
Yea. So it was good tolike to see that and to see how
much of an impact the players hadthey listened to them. And this isn't
just a coaching thing. What ishappening at not now as a culture,
(22:00):
like they said, And I thinkMarcus Freeman is walking to the perfect setup.
This is one of the best opportunities. He already knows how they operate.
And so speaking of he was,I thought of this today. He
even fits into the local community culture. He's got six kids, so he's
even fitting into the Amish culture hereand around South Fends. So Marcus was
(22:25):
asked about the offense, what hisstyle of offense is, and he said,
um, what they've been doing underTommy Reese is what he likes.
He likes production, so he reallydoesn't care what it is. He just
wants to see results. And soTommy Reese's hands are definitely, they're not
tied to anyone like this is goingto be Tommy Reese is gonna be on
(22:47):
him. Now you have a headcoach that's a defensive minded head coach instead
of offense in mind, like alot of what held back to offense was
what Brian Kelly wanted to do.We assume so and now now we'll know.
Now we'll know or Tommy Reeves willhave yes, yes, yeah,
exactly right. We're gonna find out. And I think it's it's gonna show
(23:10):
that he was kind of tied alittle bit to what Well, I'm really
curious we saw a shift halfway throughthe year after the bye week, and
so I'm really curious about how's thisoffense gonna look. Definitely in the bowl
game, I'm curious about that.But but next year more so. Yeah,
and it will look different just becausethey'll have a different starting quarterback.
So it looked different for that reasonas well. It will be different having
a defensive guy as a head coach, like we've just been so used to
(23:34):
Brian Kelly, like it's hard toremember anything different, Like, um,
all right, is there anything toupdate as far as recruiting, Well,
so they're gonna be out recruiting alot um. One guy Notre Dame didn't
have one D commitment. Of course, Brian Lsu was there to see him
a few days later, so thatwould be kind of interesting. But I
(23:57):
think a lot of these recruits,like we've often talked about, these guys
are committed to the school, notthe staff, and that's where transitions like
this are. Notre Dame is okaywith a lot of this um, but
they will be doing a lot ofrecruiting basically with the staff. They gotta
get some fair like now we needto do new defensive coordinator, so that'll
(24:18):
be kind of interesting to see whathappens there. Do you still you know
we wanted a home run higher MarcusFreeman, which I think was the best
obviously was the best to hire,but you know, is there going to
be as much of do we needa big name guy as a defensive cording
because now you have it's going tobe Marcus Freeman's defense. It is gonna
be Marcus Freeman, Marcus Freeman's defense. I do think uman I like having
(24:41):
a coach that can step back andmake sure everything's working well, not have
to be attention spent on one,one and half of the ball. So
I hope they do get a defensivecoordinator that maybe, yeah, maybe doesn't
have a ton of experience, butsomeone that doesn't in the long term doesn't
need to have their hands is heldand tight, tight down market Streeman.
(25:03):
Yeah, one of the good things. The coaches that we felt were the
weak links on the staff are leaving. Well, maybe it's the line coach
they had, Del Alexander. Iwas never if I had Del Alexander and
then I would have said, likeI just had the two. But then
with Brian Polian would have if I'dhave kept going, Brian Polian would have
(25:27):
been next on the list. AndBrian Polian is going to LSU, and
so I think it was good tosee that. What's the biggest shocker to
me with the staff is that MikeElston did not go. And I think
that shows you what he was finallytired of it. He's been promoted a
(25:51):
lot of times, never to acoordinator position, but he has been promoted.
I'm curious, Yeah, what hisI think is the associate was his?
Was he the associate head coach orsomething like that. I'm kind of
kept shifting around. Then that changebecause then he was headed the recruiting again.
Yeah, so but to see thathe stayed, I mean, obviously
(26:11):
he has his kids like that,there was always that stuff, and he's
a Notre Dame guy, but hehas followed Brian Kelly around. So right
now, I'm sure it looks likeBrian Kelly is a pretty lonely guy with
his Southern accent right now. ButI'm sure as things are happening there that
we're just not seeing like I wantto fall out with something that see what's
happening, because I guarantee you he'shaving a little bit of regret. He
(26:36):
hasked, Well, I wonder withhow it went down. Yeah, I
wonder how many guys who all didhe expect to go with him? Because
he did Marcus Freeman. I thinkit was the Coward show. He asked
Freeman to go with him. Well, they talked about it. I mean,
Freeman said he talked with his wifeabout it, and he was like,
I can't lead these I can't leadthe kids. And at first his
(26:59):
wife actually Pete Sampson mentioned this becausehe talked with his wife. Pete Sampson
mentioned this was Marcus Freeman's wife andshe said that. First he thought she
meant their kids, and she waslike, what do you mean, Like
you know that he would be leaving, you know, and there's like no
like the students, the football players, and you just hear, like what
was shocking to meet. We've gottenso used to hearing Brian Kelly and his
(27:22):
press conferences. But I think thereason people, the players, the fan,
everybody likes Marcus Freeman's because you cantell he's sincere. Yeah, we'll
see what happened. I want tosee how that goes on, as you
know, because there will be someas a head football coach, some of
that stuff. You know, it'skind of like politics. Once somebody can
(27:45):
be the greatest person wants to getinto politics, they just kind of go
downhill, doesn't matter who it is. Yeah, and I think some of
that will have to happen. Someof that will just naturally happen as a
head coach because you just of howyou have to handle things. But he's
Jane anyone that we're not sitting heretalking about how did he mean that?
Or was he just saying that toboost his player's confidence, whether like he
(28:06):
he just says it and it's refreshing. I think that's why the players banned
around him so much. So anyways, well, one thing that another positive
thing. I think it was onI'm pretty sure it was Cowhard Show he
talked about when he was interviewing him. The words that he heard describing Marcus
Freeman and humble was one of them, or not having an ego and just
(28:27):
wait, Ohio State alone, Iknow sounds crazy. He's been in department,
he's been relieved from there for awhile, so obviously it's his characters
that a chance to grow. UmNo, but yeah, being a humble
or ego lest I forget the exactwording, and then just being an incredibly
hard worker. Yeah, and andthose are two. Just yeah, he's
(28:48):
honest. Like I have no Icannot believe some of the stuff that's coming
out of Brian Kelly's mouth right now. The accent I wouldn't have put him.
I didn't think he would pull thatoff. I also didn't say he
would try to say that he's aplayers coach, like even Notre Dame is
taking jabs at him with that.He is not a players coach, like
everybody knows that. Well, Ithink Brian Kelly did did make some changes
(29:11):
in that area. I think hedidn't improve in that area. So when
you're comparing where he was at firstto where he ended up, I's very
true he made progress, That's verytrue. But yeah, anyway, it's
been an exciting two weeks. I'llI wish. I was hoping so bad
that Notre Dame could get into theplayoffs because the end of the year,
(29:33):
we were just hoping they get toa bowl game because the first here they
are. What we said is theyneed to win a major bowl game.
They have their opportunity, and Ilove their chances. But when it got
down to it, did you hearwhat you said? What he said?
At the beginning of the year,we were just hoping they'd make it to
a bowl game or I'm okay,major bow I know, but that's where
that's where No. Dame is atnow, where anything other than playoff or
(29:56):
New Year's six is a big disappointment. Is see the mark. So we
were just hoping to get to it. I had no chance. We didn't
expect them to make the playoffs,No, not at all. But then
they were in the conversation for itand they were so cool. I mean
the first team out. Yeah,and I do feel like with everything how
it went down the last few weeks, if they would have got it,
(30:17):
they would have had a good chairedup. Yes, the players would have
been and the coaches too would havebeen fired up. Curious, how is
this going to change? We talkedabout coaches leaving during this time when the
play when the playoff is expanded,because it's going to happen. Yeah,
when it's expanded and some of theseteams, more teams are making the playoff,
(30:40):
I'm just curious, who's gonna beour coaches actually gonna leave when they're
in the playoff. Hunt might actuallyhappen more because it's not as Yeah,
I don't know anyway, I understandsomething to oh what I was just saying,
Like they do. So here theyhave it. They're getting into a
big bowl game. I guarantee youif Notre Dame would be playing Saturday,
(31:02):
I don't care who they play,they could probably get a win. Like
there's just you've seen it with teams, bad teams firing their coach midway through
a year, you know, andthey go out and win the next year.
Like Notre Dame is at that placeright now they are fired up,
and I think they'll keep that goinginto the Festa Bowl, and I think
that Notre Dame will finally win theNew Year's Sixth Bowl. The sad thing
is, it's just it's the NewYear's Sixth Bowl, Like they can't use
(31:25):
that to go win the championship.So anyway, right, anything else?
No, I'm very excited. LikeI didn't expect to Brian. You know,
I defended him a lot over theyears, like I thought, you
know, I felt like people forgotwhere Notre Dame had been and where he's
gotten them, like I still do. I think people forgot how he what
he did for Notre Dame and howgood, how much has changed the consistency
(31:48):
and all that. But the wayhe left, like like he said,
like rooting for it's hard, LikeI'm I'm so done with him, and
I couldn't be more excited about whereNotre Dame is at with football right now.
Agreed, Thank you guys for listening. Until next time, go I reshtore
Popular Podcasts
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.