And Kelly’s fruit consists of rotten piles of turds with a few candied apples mixed in
program. People move on and up. Some don't work out and need to move on.
It is not the losing assistants that worries me. It is the replacing them.
If you have a good head coach and a strong program you should be able to find quality replacements.
I think the angst people feel with Elko is that we appeared to have lucked into a good DC. There isn't a lot of confidence that Kelly can come up with a replacement of equal or better quality.
He moved on and over. Which is not a good sign for the program.
to a deluxe apartment...in the sky......
of all coordinators and likely to rise. A job obviously isn't just a title.
Everyone was worried. After all, he was the architect of the defense in '66 that allowed 38 points. That is not a misprint. He left in 1969 IIRC.
He was replaced by Joe Yonto. Nothing more needs to be said.
I met him once, at my grandparents' place at Diamond Lake, when Coach Ray was with the Buffalo Bills (early/mid 70's). He gave me an autographed aerial poster of the Bills' stadium (which was probably new at that point).
See the article below about some of Ara's assistants. As I had guessed, John Ray after coaching went back to South Bend and worked at Ara Parseghian Enterprises, Ara's insurance agency.
"Super Bowl Champion
One Notre Dame assistant became the head coach of a Super Bowl champion.
Hank Stram, who guided the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super Bowl IV title in 1970, was the backfield coach for Brennan's last two teams in 1957-58.
National Champions
The record for most consensus national titles by a former Irish assistant is three apiece by Rockne (1924, 1929 and 1930) and Urban Meyer (2006, 2008 at Florida, and 2014 at Ohio State). Meyer was the receivers coach at Notre Dame from 1996-2000 before becoming the head coach at Bowling Green State."
"The Seven Blocks of Granite were the Fordham University football team's offensive line under head coach "Sleepy" Jim Crowley and line coach Frank Leahy. The most famous Seven Blocks of Granite were Leo Paquin, Johnny Druze, Alex Wojciechowicz, Ed Franco, Al Babartsky, Natty Pierce and Vince Lombardi."
these are the stories I love to hear about.
I know our mutual buddy mentioned that seeing his jersey with all the other ND greats was an incredible feeling. It was between ND/Penn St/Oklahoma...he made a great 4 year and an even better 40 year decision because of how you made him and others feel.
between, John Ray did not help the cause. Taking nothing away from his capabilities as a DC, but he failed miserably there.
Leroy Keyes of Purdue ran a goal line fumble back 98 yards; and Navy recovered a blocked punt for a TD. Yesterday was so sweet.
I thought it was 94. My first game at ND Stadium.
Good times.
Except for Keyes ...
Rocky Bleier fumbled on their opening drive as he he running left. Keyes scooped it up for the 94 yd TD to make it 7-0 Purdue.
Nicky Eddy took the ensuing kickoff back 97 yards for a TD to tie the game.
as he returned the ensuing kickoff for a TD, which tied the game at 7. ND would not trail again that season until the first half at Michigan State. The defensive starters didn't allow anybody other than Purdue and MSU to score; the only other team to score an offensive point was Northwestern, which got a late TD after ND had run up a 35-0 lead.
seen in a football game . . . Our first seats in the stadium were in the south end zone, and after watching Purdue's #23 (Keyes) back slowly disappear from sight, we were treated to the magnificence of Eddy appearing in the midst of blockers enroute to our end zone. The memory still lingers!
In response to one of the threads below, many people posted that Kelly would probably be at ND for no more than a year or two. A few of those people also remarked that Kelly was probably getting closer to the point that he will burn out physically and mentally from the demands of the job.
Was there a sense between 1994-1996 that the Holtz era would likely be coming to an end, because of his longevity at ND and the likelihood of him burning out? During those final three seasons, did Lou have problems finding quality replacements for Assistant Coaches who left, because there was a feeling that Lou wouldn't be at ND for much longer?
It was the ones who showed up just looking to get ND on their resume. No intentions of the long haul. That led to plenty of turnover.
I don't recall the last few years of Holtz with the happiness I remember the stretch from 86-93. He had tougher losses, less recruiting success, and something just didn't seem right. Looking back, I can see how the stories about less support from the administration combined with a tighter recruiting criteria made it tougher for Holtz to have the on field success that he and ND fans were accustomed to. This may be a little strong, but it felt like Holtz was holding on versus the '86-'87 years where the program was ascending like a Saturn rocket.
A few things I heard back in the 95-96 timeframe:
After the OSU losses, Holtz was bitter and said something to the effect "it's hard to coach against another team when many of those players wanted to commit to ND but the academic side declined them"
After an emotionally tough loss to Air Force, it was rumored that Holtz went in to the AD and asked for a job description. He may have been using this ploy to see what the expectation for him and the program was. He may have been looking for the AD to give him a buck up conversation and offer 100% complete support of Holtz.
Recruiting restrictions made his job harder.
Sometimes, I wonder what Holtz/ND would have looked like had Moss enrolled/played at ND for three or four years. Sometimes, it's time to go. It was easy to understand that when Holtz left he was an excellent coach...but it also felt like the time was maybe right. Then his replacement came in and you knew that you were COMPLETELY wrong.
assistant turnover and the fact the Yelovich wasn't a good RC. His communication with Admissions left much to be desired. This was fixed when Chmiel came on board and recruiting suddenly got better. Standards hadn't gotten any more strict. They were prepared to admit Randy Moss, for gosh sakes, if, on the fifth request, he'd turned in just a decent application.
Lou was fried by 1996. I don't blame him. The job wipes out the best of them. Could be why Kelly is not "wiped out". He isn't in the 'best of them" club.
The 94 class wasn't good but 95 was rated as one of the 10 best in ND history.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/582778-notre-dame-football-top-ten-recruiting-classes-of-all-time
perform unlike every single one of his predecessors.
that's on the record; Wadsworth typed up a description for him in 1996.
and that this was one of Wadsworth's ways of trying to push Holtz out.
in a sense of exasperation in terms of "geez, Wadsworth, I'm not even sure what I am supposed to be doing here. Can you get me a job responsibilities checklist?"
Instead of assuring Holtz that he was a valued coach/employee of the school he actually had a list of duties typed up
kiss my ass everyday
Prepare Bob Davie to be your replacement
Make sure your players don't get into pre-game scuffles
oh, and try really hard to win...when you can.
speaks volumes.
Granted, he didn't do terribly well at that job. But without more, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that he "cannot land a better gig."
who else?
Jim Johnson with the Eagles
Gruden's son obviously did well
Alvarez
Obviously not a ton of them since Holtz left.
Devine and later Faust. Another of Faust's assistants, Greg Blache (also an assistant at ND under Ara and Devine, although he had two tenures at ND separated by six years), later coached as an NFL assistant for over 20 years, serving as defensive coordinator for both the Bears and the Redskins during that time.
have made to Weis' trajectory. Would have having had a guy with college head coaching experience, and Cutcliffe's obvious breadth of coaching knowledge changed anything?
The previous head coaching experiences, as you mentioned. Also, I think Weis lacked the personality to be a top-flight head coach. I think he originally had envisioned Cutcliffe as a sort of go-between between himself and the coaching staff, which would have allowed Weis more of a CEO type role.
Without Cutcliffe, he was forced into more of a hands-on role, and I don't think he was prepared for it.
Only one year 1994 at ND as secondary coach. Later DC for the Pats and Ravens, where tehy won the SB. Just retired.
I saw that name this past weekend for the first time in ages. I remember reading his cute little daily notes that he put in the players' locker rooms during spring practice.
Interesting career arc. He spent only a year somewhere new for a long time until he hitched his wagon onto Rivera with the Bears and then followed him.
I remember being underwhelmed by Ty's hire of the BGSU DB coach. It took awhile, but it looks like Wilks is having some success now.
He was QB coach for the Falcons after leaving ND.
All were Assistant Coaches at ND. All became head coaches at Power 5 Conference schools.
After he coordinated Urban's first NC defense.
Meyer was an assistant coach. Mullen was a GA.
In ND's case, it's neither the departure nor the replacement. How many ways can you rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic? Does it matter?
given the chance, I would think you are correct.
When Kelly left Cincinnati for ND, Quinn was the interim head coach before Butch Jones took over. In the same coaching carousel, Turner Gill left Buffalo for Kansas, and Quinn replaced Gill at Buffalo.
Now clearly, Cincinnati is a better coaching job than Buffalo, so that progression appears a bit confusing. I'm not 100% sure about the details, but my best guess would be that either: (a) Quinn already had agreed to take the Buffalo job before Kelly took the ND job (although remember, Tom Herman reportedly had agreed to the LSU job before Texas offered, then reneged on LSU once he got the Texas offer); or, more likely, (b) Quinn had been told that he would not receive the permanent HC job at Cincinnati, and began looking elsewhere.
Quinn didn't do very well at Buffalo, and eventually was fired there. At that time, he probably hooked up with Kelly again. Certainly understandable, given the circumstances.
he would punch SRFSIM right in the mouth.
And with a reputation for converting non-football guys and defensive players into quality linemen, that seems the kind of guy that would be great at developing college kids.
crazy.
And the fight he got into with a defensive assistant when he was the coach in Oakland. Of course, that only resulted in a broken jaw for the assistant so you can possibly overlook that.
Other than that, he would be an outstanding fit.
Between allegations and convictions. Police lie. Particularly when they are pursuing their own personal agenda. Trust me, I know of which I speak.
Rant over.
flipped out. Then I saw the rest and it made sense!
You know he'd bring the energy in recruiting.
He'll make sure our guys aren't letting injuries keep them off the field.
and paying for sex, so he'll be able to warn our guys to stay away.
We've had that issue in the past, you know.