RE: Coaches who voted for UC in USA TODAY Poll
I have never really understood the remaining love for Brian Kelly in regards to Mark Dantonio...
Dantonio left the program stocked... Brian Kelly, by-and-large, won with Dantonio's kids. On the other hand, everyone talks about this year in relationship to (Butch) Jones' first year. Brian Kelly left the program extremely depleted and Jones came into a team that was truly rebuilding.
Dantonio took a couple of UC players and recruits with him up to East Lansing, the most noteworthy being Brent Celek's little brother and Greg Jones (?). [Hated that, BTW...] Brian Kelly, on the other hand, took a large number of (especially UC recruits) with him up to South Bend, basically destroying the recruiting class. Likewise, Jones killed our class last year.
Dantonio did leave in the middle of the night, but the writing was on the wall when John L. Smith was fired. Kelly, it turned out, was courting Notre Dame ALL SEASON LONG, while lying about it, even reportedly telling the kids on the bus after the Pitt game that "he wasn't going anywhere..." Then the story broke the day of the team banquet, with the memorable scene of Kelly telling the team just before they went in to eat, and the slipping out the back door. Jones... Well, that was just a year ago and we all know the story.
I'm not asking anybody to "like" Dantonio. But I really don't get the remaining love for Kelly. He screwed us over, IMO, worse than Dantonio ever did. I think Jones is the under-rated guy of the bunch, taking a program that BK left in shambles and rebuilding it within three years, though he did destroy the recruiting class in how he left.
In the end, all these guys are nothing more and nothing less than employees and you probably have to look at them in that light. Each of them were brought in to do a job, and how effectively they did that job counts more than whether you "liked" them.
(This post was last modified: 12-09-2013 01:52 PM by BearcatJerry.)
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