Since Brian Kelly took over the Notre Dame football program in 2010, there’s been a whole host of off-the-field issues that have tarnished the Golden Dome. No need to go into detail on all of the PR black eyes here, simply stating the individual names will suffice: Everett Golson, Manti Te’o, Tommy Rees, Michael Floyd, Carlo Calabrese, Declan Sullivan, Lizzy Seeberg/Prince Shembo.
Currently, the names at the center of controversy are: KeiVarae Russell, DaVaris Daniels, Ishaq Williams, Kendall Moore and Eilar Hardy. Yes, “stuff happens” as Donald Rumsfeld used to say, and “stuff” happens at every college program in the nation, not just in South Bend. Yes,”stuff happened” under Charlie Weiss, Bob Davie, Ty Willingham, Lou Holtz etc. as well.
However under the Brian Kelly regime, it “happens” a lot. Yet he always gets past it, and always gets through it. So there’s no reason to believe he won’t also navigate his way through the current minefield too.
“I’ve known Brian Kelly for 25 years, since he was at Grand Valley State,” said Gary Danielson, who pairs with Verne Lundquist to form CBS’ top college football announcer pairing. They joined the media on conference call yesterday to talk about the 2014 college football season.
“I know his attention to detail, I know how he built his team, but replacing good players is never easy for anybody, no matter what level of team you have. Everybody circles the Notre Dame game.”
CBS will broadcast ND versus Navy at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland on November 1st. It will be part of the network’s college football triple header that Saturday.
“I think Notre Dame is in good hands overall,” Danielson added.
In five years on the job, none of the previous scandals, player arrests, academic malfeasance etc. have put Kelly on the hot seat. He’s kept winning in spite of all of it, so expect the same to hold true during the 2014 season.
Danielson added that he doesn’t believe the 2012 National Title game blowout at the hands of Alabama was truly indicative of the level where Brian Kelly and his program currently reside.
“I don’t think Notre Dame is as far away from the elite teams as maybe that game led people to put judgment on their program. I think they’re a lot closer than that game (showed).”
“Alabama had them wired. I think the distraction of Manti Te’o caused them to get off on the wrong foot, and as I mentioned before, if you don’t have high level quarterback play against Alabama, they roll you,” Danielson said.
Perhaps the Te’o distraction did influence the result. Now we’ll see if the five suspended players become a distraction. It all starts this Saturday versus Michigan. (game preview and prediction here) The Irish really need all the help they can get in the pass defense department.
Brian Kelly didn’t want to talk too much on Tuesday about the secondary, for understandable reasons, but he did say that the unit needs to be more demonstrative, and take more control back there:
The safeties couldn’t even make sure the secondary lined up right at times, and that led to some huge plays given up versus Rice.
Paul M. Banks owns and operates The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yahoo! and the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)