As spring practice continues, the national media takes its swing through South Bend for an update on the state of the Irish football program. With Brian Kelly now at the helm, its only natural that people compare his way of doing things to that of his predecessor, Charlie Weis.
Two of the most prominent, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and SI’s Stewart Mandel took their turns dropping by the Golden Dome. And with Kelly’s philosophy and style drastically different from that of Weis, it’s pretty easy to see the narrative develop.
From Schlabach:
It hasn’t taken Notre Dame’s returning players long to realize life is
going to be different under Kelly, who replaced Charlie Weis as their
coach Dec. 10. Kelly has instituted several changes at Notre Dame, from
where the players eat and study to how they practice and dress. He even
wants them to arrange their lockers in a uniform way and had large
charts printed to show them how to do it.Kelly said the changes are designed to make the Fighting Irish more of a
“team,” instead of individual players performing only for themselves
and future NFL careers.“Most of the guys here were more interested in whether they were on Mel
Kiper’s Big Board,” Kelly said. “I want guys who are more interested in
what they can do for Notre Dame.”“It says, ‘God, Country and Notre Dame’ outside of my office,” Kelly
said. “I think my job is to put teeth back into that. Everybody looks at
Notre Dame and assumes it’s special. Well, define that for me. I’m
still defining ‘special.’ It’s about team, team, team. I’m trying to get
it to where they understand this is about Notre Dame, your teammates,
your family and then yourself. I think they had it flipped the other
way. It started with me and Notre Dame was at the other end.”
And now Mandel:
Practice tempo is just one of a bundle of changes the Irish are
adjusting to in what Kelly called “a 180-degree turn from the way this
business was run to the way I’m running this business.” The 48-year-old
Massachusetts native still refers to himself as a “Division II coach,”
having spent 13 years as head coach at Grand Valley State prior to
winning conference championships at Central Michigan (2006) and
Cincinnati (’08 and ’09).As he peeled back the curtain on
Weis’ regime, during which the Irish went 16-21 the past three seasons,
Kelly found what many of us on the outside had suspected all along: For
years, Notre Dame had run more like an NFL franchise than a college
program. For many, career aspirations came before championships.“A lot of these guys signed up for Notre Dame because of the idea
that ‘Hey, we’re going to get you to the NFL,'” said Kelly. “That was a
good pitch. You had a guy that had great credibility to do that. I can’t
pitch that because I don’t have that background. Mine is, I know how to
get you to a BCS game.“My impression, in the short amount
of time that I’ve been here, is guys were playing for themselves. The
priorities have to be Notre Dame, playing for your family, playing for
your teammates and then playing for yourself. I think that was upside
down. ‘Selfishness’ and ‘entitlement’ are two words that would be
apropos.”
Part of any coaching transition is to quite literally change the standard operating procedure, and if the beginning of spring practice has shown us anything, Kelly has done just that. And while it’s only natural to throw a coaching staff that was fired for lack of results under the bus, Kelly has done a good job distancing himself from that stance.
“Coach Weis’ pedigree was the NFL,” Kelly said. “It was a different way
of going about it and it was what he was exposed to. Coach Weis had the
NFL pedigree and that big ring on his finger. He coached Tom Brady and
led him to a Super Bowl, and he told kids he could do it for them, too.
That would be my pitch, too, but I haven’t done that.”
How the Weis era will be remembered will take a few years to find some context, but the departure from a pro-style system and philosophy to Kelly’s uptempo strictly collegiate approach will ultimately be judged by wins and losses.
