Jack Swarbrick joined Darin Pritchett and Eric Hansen for an interview on WSBT AM 960, and for those of you that don’t have twenty-plus minutes, I did some listening for you.
Here’s what Jack said:
On his initial impressions of Brian Kelly has head coach:
He has an intuitive understanding of what our university is about. He has a real feel for the things that make ND special. The people, the traditions, he’s really embraced them. In his dealings with the team, the structure of the program, his willingness to go out on the road and meet the fans, it’s been a really nice element. The second thing is that he’'s also got an extraordinary capacity for work, a real energy level. He’s on 24 hours a day, and brings an enormous amount of enthusiasm and vigor to the program.
On the continuation of the Michigan series:
My operating assumption is that we’ll continue to play Michigan. We’ve got a two-year hiatus coming up, but as Dave [Brandon] and I have talked, we have contemplated anything other than this series going forward.
On the shift from the 7-4-1 shedule to a more flexible 6-5-1 model.
It may even be more than half [the time]. 6-5-1 just produces better schedules. There will be years where that’s not true, but we’ll have a number of 6-5-1 years, and some 7-4-1 years. I just like the flexibility it gives us, some of the matchups we can create. I’m really excited about some of the discussions we’re having right now and moving towards contracts with some really top-flight schools across the country.
On the future of neutral site football games:
As long as we can produce games that have a special element to them, I’m very eager to do the off-site games. I think what they do to promote Notre Dame and the program is important. And we will continue to build one in every year. Right now, I’m pretty confident we can continue to do that, I don’t see any roadblocks. As we contemplate future ones, we’re able to find venues and opponents that tell a story. Whether it’s about the traditions of a place, great rivalries, or two national powers meeting, as long as we can do that, we’re going to continue doing the off-site games, because I think it’s so good for Notre Dame.
On the potential conference changes in college football:
I don’t know that my crystal ball is better than everybody else’s. I think at this point there’s only one person whose crystal ball has anything in it worth knowing, and that’s Commissioner Delany. Whatever they decide to do will likely cause a reaction. It may be a very minor reaction or it could be something more significant. We’ll pay attention, but our goal, our intention is to remain as an independent in football.
How much do economics play into the choice to stay independent in football?
I don’t think it does. At least it hasn’t in the internal discussions to date. You’ve got to be reasonable. There are certainly scenarios where you’d get economic shifts for a host of reasons that you’d have to pay attention to. But as we examine our future, the finances are way down on the list of things. The tie of our football independence to the identity of the university, and it’s role in things we do, and how we come together, and how we project ourselves with a national media partner, those are all things you can’t really put a price on. It creates almost an impossibility in trying to engage in a financial analysis. You wind up looking at a bunch of factors that you can’t put a price tag on.