Who says that he is their 3rd choice? Yea, maybe they wanted Meyer and Stoops, but just because you want someone doesn't necessarily make them a viable candidate. I'm sure they wanted Bill Belichik, Andy Reid and Mack Brown as well. That doesn't mean that they were all choices.

The whole Kelly situation has been pretty hush hush, and people reporting completely different things, so this is becoming even more interesting. I just don't think Cincinnati will open up their pocket books.

centralbucksfan wrote: Will be interesting for sure. I was reading somewhere that UC wasn't exactly extending themselves to try and keep Kelly...which was disappointing to Kelly. Which would obviously make you believe he is headed to ND. If true, I wonder why UC hasn't made a HUGE effort to keep him, pay him or whatever?? I honestly think Kelly is headed to ND unless they were unable to work things out for whatever reason.

I think that is something thrown out by Kelly in order not to make him look bad when/if he leaves. Consider, there are a lot of reports from the players that he told them prior to the Pitt game that he was staying. Most people realize coaches stretch the truth when it comes to this issue and accept when they tell some white lies to the media, but lying to your players is never tolerated very well.

UC had given Kelly raises in each of his two years since he has been here and had offered him a third raise this year. In addition, the program has raised the runds to build a new practice facility and a stadium improvement project is in the works. The Cincinnati faithful sent 20,000 to the Orange Bowl last year, sold out their last four home games and sent 10-15,000 to the Pitt game last week. UC merchandise sales and interest is at an all time high.

Little Danny wrote:
The Cincinnati faithful sent 20,000 to the Orange Bowl last year, sold out their last four home games and sent 10-15,000 to the Pitt game last week. UC merchandise sales and interest is at an all time high.

lol, those figures are certainly not brag worthy when comparing to notre dame, ohio state, florida, texas, etc...

"the cincinnati *faithful* sold out the last four games of their 35,000 capacity stadium, weeeeee" :rolleyes:

thedynasty1998 wrote: Who says that he is their 3rd choice? Yea, maybe they wanted Meyer and Stoops, but just because you want someone doesn't necessarily make them a viable candidate. I'm sure they wanted Bill Belichik, Andy Reid and Mack Brown as well. That doesn't mean that they were all choices.

So you're saying if Meyer or Stoops had wanted it, they wouldn't have been signed immediately? HA! Thanks for the ammo... BK Burger is actually NDs 10th round choice behind Billick, Reid & Brown huh?

i am sure *any* school would want saban or meyer, etc however, those were never realistic choices.

stoops might have been notre dames *first* choice, but i always felt it was a pipe dream. if notre dame REALLY wanted him, i am sure they would have bended the contract to get him. they did not give stoops what he wanted so both parties moved on...

That's what I'm saying, is there any proof that Notre Dame actually had interest in Stoops? Or was it just media speculation? There was a lot of talk of Miles to Michigan, but we found out that there was nothing more to that than the media making stuff up.

I think Kelly is the first person that Notre Dame really contacted with real intent on signing, therefore, I would consider him their first choice.

centralbucksfan wrote:

3reppom wrote: A lot of crazy rumors running rampant through Cincinnati late last night and this morning. Half saying that he is staying, half that the contract with ND is signed and he is getting on a plane late tonight for South Bend. Either way this officially ends today for Kelly, he will surely meet with the team before the banquet to tell them of his decision. At which point all hell will break loose in Clifton or South Bend. I have a good feeling about this for UC, but it is only 8:40 and the team banquet is not until 7

Will be interesting for sure. I was reading somewhere that UC wasn't exactly extending themselves to try and keep Kelly...which was disappointing to Kelly. Which would obviously make you believe he is headed to ND. If true, I wonder why UC hasn't made a HUGE effort to keep him, pay him or whatever?? I honestly think Kelly is headed to ND unless they were unable to work things out for whatever reason.

Kelly does not have a great relationship with AD Mike Thomas. Thats part of it but it's not the whole story. Kelly isn't really that interested in parlaying his success into a huge payday, he wants to be fairly compensated but he isn't really looking for a windfall. The newest offer is likely to be around 2 million a year, with substantial raises for his staff and for Football operations as well. Fiscally Kelly can live with that. The snag is that Kelly wants the program to move forward, to maintain this level of success. Part of that is in place, or will be in place next summer when the practice fields are completed. The bigger part of that is the expansion of Nippert. I love Nippert Stadium, but as a revenue generating entity it is lacking, it hasn't been touched in almost two decades. Kelly is aware that a renovation including club and/or luxury seating would be the keystone of the program. That is what is needed for long term viability UC football as a top 25 fixture. Thomas is non committal on the Nippert situation, he is unwilling to make definitive statements. Kelly says that Thomas has a MAC mentality, and he isn't wrong. The expense would be large, very large for a school that is just now coming out of a decade long building boom, but it is something that will need to be addressed eventually.

thedynasty1998 wrote: That's what I'm saying, is there any proof that Notre Dame actually had interest in Stoops? Or was it just media speculation? There was a lot of talk of Miles to Michigan, but we found out that there was nothing more to that than the media making stuff up.

I think Kelly is the first person that Notre Dame really contacted with real intent on signing, therefore, I would consider him their first choice.

and DENIAL is a river in Africa...

dwccrew wrote: I'm not real sure why you always like to bring up OSU when someone, mainly CC, is talking trash about Notre Dame. Generally you post intelligently, stick to that instead of lowering yourself to the trolls levels.

Also, when USC went into the Shoe, they weren't unranked, they were top 5 I believe.

Just stating the facts. CC makes the ridiculous statement that defeating USC was not a big deal this year but he neglects the fact that they went in to the shoe and beat his team..........is there really anything wrong with that?

BTW, you know as well as I do, the standard "protocol" on here is a team's ranking at the end of the year. I remember when ND defeated a couple of ranked teams in Weis' first year but according to most on this forum (and the other huddle) they were not quality wins because one of those teams dropped in the rankings at years end and the other finished unranked. We can't have it both ways.........can we?

A serious question for the true Norte Dame fans.
How long do you think the new staff will need to turn things around?

It's not hard to sell out when your stadium only holds 35,000......

and word, yet?

DaBrowns41 wrote: It's not hard to sell out when your stadium only holds 35,000......

Word on the street is that if they had 40,000 seats, they STILL might have sold out. Unbelievable!

Cincinnati has the biggest bandwagon jumpers in all sports. Empty Bengals games, Reds games, and again next year...there will be empty UC games. Why am I stuck living here?

cavattack wrote: Cincinnati has the biggest bandwagon jumpers in all sports. Empty Bengals games, Reds games, and again next year...there will be empty UC games. Why am I stuck living here?

Unlike the folks in Clevleland, who sold out every Cavs game and sold tons of merchandise before LBJ showed up. :rolleyes: Everyone has bandwagon fans. It's just part of sports. Without the bandwagon fans, most sporting teams would not be able to survive with just the hardcore base.

By the way, If you are so miserable- move!

BK Burger is the best you can come up with? Are you the same cretin that conjured up "potato famine fans?"

I do not care if Kelly is the 100th choice, if he wins I'll be happy.

sjmvsfscs08 wrote:I do not care if Kelly is the 100th choice, if he wins I'll be happy.

True that.

rocket31 wrote: i am sure *any* school would want saban or meyer, etc however, those were never realistic choices.

stoops might have been notre dames *first* choice, but i always felt it was a pipe dream. if notre dame REALLY wanted him, i am sure they would have bended the contract to get him. they did not give stoops what he wanted so both parties moved on...

I think the point is that the top names aren't realistic choices. Some people still want to claim Notre Dame head coach as one of the most prestigious positions in all of sports. But whether Kelly was their first "real" choice or not, the fact is that there are not big names lining up or knocking down the door with interest in going there. Kelly's success at Notre Dame's self-perceived level is minimal, if it even exists. Yes, he has won everywhere he's been. Yes, he has now had two extremely successful seasons at a BCS school. And maybe the Urban Meyer comparisons will turn out to be true (jumps from place-to-place until he gets to the top). But who ever thought Notre Dame would be in a position to have to take a chance like that, four times in a row?

You say, "if Notre Dame REALLY wanted him..." Why would they even approach him if they didn't REALLY want him and why wouldn't they REALLY want someone with his track record if he was actually interested?

enigmaax wrote:

rocket31 wrote: i am sure *any* school would want saban or meyer, etc however, those were never realistic choices.

stoops might have been notre dames *first* choice, but i always felt it was a pipe dream. if notre dame REALLY wanted him, i am sure they would have bended the contract to get him. they did not give stoops what he wanted so both parties moved on...

I think the point is that the top names aren't realistic choices. Some people still want to claim Notre Dame head coach as one of the most prestigious positions in all of sports. But whether Kelly was their first "real" choice or not, the fact is that there are not big names lining up or knocking down the door with interest in going there. Kelly's success at Notre Dame's self-perceived level is minimal, if it even exists. Yes, he has won everywhere he's been. Yes, he has now had two extremely successful seasons at a BCS school. And maybe the Urban Meyer comparisons will turn out to be true (jumps from place-to-place until he gets to the top). But who ever thought Notre Dame would be in a position to have to take a chance like that, four times in a row?

You say, "if Notre Dame REALLY wanted him..." Why would they even approach him if they didn't REALLY want him and why wouldn't they REALLY want someone with his track record if he was actually interested?

Honestly I think Kelly was ND's last chance at a "big name" coach. Obviously there are questions about him. How does he recruit, can he create a dominate defense, etc.
With guys like Stoops and Meyer who have been at the top, these aren't really questions that need to be asked. With a guy like Kelly who is at a mid-major (good lord here comes the bitching from UC fans) those questions will be there.

Look at a guy like Rich Rod. He came from a program that was a higher level than UC and he can't get the huge top 5 recruiting classes, he hasn't built a defense.

enigmaax wrote: I think the point is that the top names aren't realistic choices. Some people still want to claim Notre Dame head coach as one of the most prestigious positions in all of sports.

"It became apparent to me that their focus was clearly on [pursuing candidates] on the college side," Billick said. "If it were to come back the other way, it would be worth considering only because it was Notre Dame...But if there were a college job that would pull me back into college, certainly Notre Dame would be that job."

Interesting comments from a Super Bowl winning Coach, I would have to guess he would know something about prestigious coaching positions woulnd't he?

LJ wrote: Honestly I think Kelly was ND's last chance at a "big name" coach. Obviously there are questions about him. How does he recruit, can he create a dominate defense, etc.
With guys like Stoops and Meyer who have been at the top, these aren't really questions that need to be asked. With a guy like Kelly who is at a mid-major (good lord here comes the bitching from UC fans) those questions will be there.

Look at a guy like Rich Rod. He came from a program that was a higher level than UC and he can't get the huge top 5 recruiting classes, he hasn't built a defense.

The fact that you brought up Rich Rod is interesting. He isn't the only Big East coach who has gone on to less success after leaving the Big East.

Walt Harris had Pitt in a BCS bowl and two years later, he's 1-11 at Stanford and will probably never be a head coach again at a big time program again.

Though Bobby Petrino hasn't completely tanked, in his two years at Arkansas he's finished no higher than fourth.

Each of the three did a lot to build their respective programs in the Big East and each went somewhere else and hasn't/didn't perform as well as predecessors there.

It is hard to know which guys to take a chance on when they've won at a certain level and to circle back around, why does Notre Dame have to take a chance like that?

^^^
Billick would also like to have a regular pay check would be my guess, so "any port in a storm".

karen lotz wrote:

enigmaax wrote: I think the point is that the top names aren't realistic choices. Some people still want to claim Notre Dame head coach as one of the most prestigious positions in all of sports.

"It became apparent to me that their focus was clearly on [pursuing candidates] on the college side," Billick said. "If it were to come back the other way, it would be worth considering only because it was Notre Dame...But if there were a college job that would pull me back into college, certainly Notre Dame would be that job."

Interesting comments from a Super Bowl winning Coach, I would have to guess he would know something about prestigious coaching positions woulnd't he?

Yeah, interesting that Notre Dame is so focused on hiring a second-tier college coach that they completely ignore a Super Bowl winning coach's interest.

uh they been there done that...didn't work out so well did it?

Tiernan wrote: uh they been there done that...didn't work out so well did it?

Not exactly. Weis was a coordinator. Billick was a head coach.

But what is the difference in the risk between a guy who won a Super Bowl as a professional head coach and a guy who has only won at small time college football programs? Again, there's my point. If ND is such a grand job why are they going from one extreme to the other instead of getting a "real" big name proven college winner?

^^^
Nail meet Hammer. Exactly! Becuz anybody who has any coaching talent whatsoever knows this job has become a grave yard.