college football
is that for as long as that you and I have had spent Monday
night no focused on the game and thinking about how is going
to affect or Tuesday conversations in our work
the rest of the week last night was that was a Monday night you
know three our experience unlike any I've had you got to
close game with which isn't that unusual but with all
the news about Brian Kelly are coming out going to LSU I mean
I was literally one eye on the game and one eye on what is
going on in South Bend is this really true could it really be
true so it was it was a Monday night 3 hours. I'm like
call why don't we just start there since you brought up
Brian Kelly and the coach thing I realized that most people
listen to this for for our views on the NFL but you know
I just when I heard this last night I was just really it
just struck me wrong
it really struck me the wrong way and it again I'm 64 years
old I've got a little bit of Pollyanna in me and I've got
a little bit of you know this just feels wrong and I'll tell
you why it feels wonderful
in and everybody should aspire to coach and play at Notre Dame
no no that's not it
Brian Kelly's job every year is to recruit and to gather
a bunch of young men
and drill them and Coach them and practice and play with one
goal in mind and that is to win a National Championship it's
very hard at Notre Dame compared to some other programs
I get it but that has to be the goal every year that was
his goal this year they've lost one game most likely I would
say it's likely that they're going to get in the final four
they're going to get in the tournament you work all year
for this
and one day these kids look on Twitter and find out that their
coach has bolted for LSU and again I get the fact that 10 or
12 or whenever it's really hard to say no to that I get it but
you know what
Brian Kelly adult be responsible
just like you would want your players to be you know and
I just really abject much more than Lincoln Riley leaving
because Oklahoma's not playing for the college football
playoffs to
the business but coach who would abandon his team before
the final four before this tournament not only rubs me
the wrong way but I think it says something quite honestly about
his character and it just really really bothers
me there's sometimes in life where you need to take
a business opportunity and you need to leave and go somewhere
there's sometimes in life where you just say no absolutely not
I can't do this right now I can't leave these nice guys
I can't leave this University right now you want to talk to
me in a month talk to me and this is the life you chose
I don't know Paul I know you're close to the Notre Dame
programming and you know you'd go out
there and you do the games on the radio I just this really
was disappointing to me I don't know how you feel about it
I know you know Brian Kelly and everybody says Brian Kelly is
a great guy this this just bothers me a lot
I think the opinion that you have Peter's is one that's
going to be shared by by number of people as I sit here and
listen to you you make good points about feeling that
the way you do and there will be plenty of people who feel
the same way I mean I've got to be honest when I was sitting
there watching it last night and see the tweets and like
okay that is a big difference between LSU being interested in
Brian Kelly which was being recorded throughout the day and
then in
the evening turning toward a Brian Kelly is going to go to
LSU this when it shifted to that that was when I was like
many people I'm like this this doesn't make a lot of sense to
me coaches leave good programs all the time but they
don't leave when their team is 6 days away from a real
Fighting Chance at least a fifty-fifty chance of making
the college football playoffs and being one of the select
teams that actually has a chance to win the national
title of that that makes it awfully
unique and as I thought about it more and more I'm around
the program every week like you said it's been a lot of time
around Brian Kelly this season and in the recent season
there's nothing about the way he conducted himself this year
that suggested you know what she looks like Brian's looking
for something else he
doesn't have the same fire he had and seven years ago or two
years ago or five years ago the all-time winningest coach at
Notre Dame I think had his best coaching job or did his best
coaching job with the help of his assistants and players that
he's ever done there they weren't a real good team in
early October and now all of a sudden not all of a sudden but
not that much later they're team that belongs in the top
four I mean he did a terrific job of leading a pivot
on offense and defense that got away from what what what they
thought that she was going to be in the beginning of
the season so his performance didn't speak or didn't smell
like somebody who was looking somewhere else on the way he
interacted with us at
NBC and also on the radio side didn't suggest that at all and
just the timing of it with that the team being days away from
finding out what they're
very attractive postseason path is going to be if it raises
eyebrows but I can say from personal experience he didn't
act like a coach who was looking elsewhere and he
certainly didn't treat us that way so I am now based off my
personal experience that every
weekend I'm I'm as surprised as anybody
call how are the how will the players there react
I think I mean it's easy for me to have a perspective that
you're at the age of 50 that I didn't have when I was twenty
I I'm sure the players there will probably be a mix of sort of
understanding and really let down I mean
they're 18 to 22 year old kids who giving it all up for this
program and it's easy to look at a leader and say you're not
in it with us anymore so as the years go by maybe they'll be
some more understanding but if I can
remember back to how I was when I was 19 20 21 I would feel
left behind and that's probably a nice way of putting it there
probably a number of players who feel a very strong version
of that
I don't know right you know somebody in college football
I don't know who it is I don't know if anybody has the power
to do what I doubt anybody does but somebody in college
football or the NCAA has to look at things like this and
say
this is CD to put it mildly this is wrong it's morally wrong
and to allow one University to plunder another team's coach
arrow in the middle of what might be a championship season
is just it you don't like you try to compare it to other
walks of life I mean what would happen in Major League Baseball
if the if if Aaron Boone is leading
the New York Yankees they're in there in the last weekend of
the season and there are about to enter the playoffs as
the one seed try to win Another World Series what would happen
if whatever the Los Angeles Dodgers $3 at him and
hire them would that be allowed of course not it wouldn't be
allowed it's not right it's not fair alright we're going to
move on I could I could really saying some things I know I'll
regret even though I strongly but I think
that it if there's a problem here why not go outside of
the of the person who decided to leave and mean look at the look
at the place that made him an offer that you really can't
resist I mean I hear it's different because they're young
people's
lives involved but I made whatever your house is worth
are Peter somebody knocked on the door and said I'll give you
four times the amount in cash right now you might be like hey
honey we got some to think about here and it's I know it's
not that easy because they are hungry young kids locked up
somebody and offer that they can't refuse right it shouldn't
happen when there's as much on the line as their particular
case and again about a lot of people are going to
I just this one of this happens all the time in college sports
I wonder honestly what is it matter that Mel Tucker if
indeed a Michigan State whatever it is 910
million-dollar year contract what does it matter in 2 weeks
if somebody comes in and offers him a job for 15 what does that
mean then to sign a contract in college sports it's just
reprehensible the whole business and I just don't think
that
that right thinking people can look at this and shrug their
shoulders no matter how much you might love LSU or whatever
and and no matter in Notre Dame now you say hey good riddance
you know we don't want you anymore because I'm sure that
there's
going to be a lot of people who say that too
but this is wrong..