You make some very good points. Kelly’s first 2 seasons were underwhelming, to say the least. And. compared to Lou’s trajectory, was not instilling confidence. This year’s team has achieved because of individuals stepping into key roles (F Shumate, J Motta, D line) and pure athleticism bouying this team. That’s a testament to his recruiting. As far as coaching, Kelly’s offense – specifically his handling of QB’s – has been, and continues to be, a real problem going forward. Ironic, since that’s what he used to build his resume. Finally, his glaring weakness IMO, is his inability to inspire these young players. We’ll see if he’s turning that tide when the Stanford/SC games come round, or if they come out flat yet again. I’m all for process, but it’s only as effective as the leader who inspiresit.

Tiger Woods It’s a process

Doug… I don’t expect anyone to “believe” I do expect people to understand that great coaching is less than a purple face on a Saturday and more about what happens in the daily interactions.

I don’t blame anyone for skepticism… I do blame them for chastising views without merit that simply differ from their own.

I enjoyed your story. However, ND’s a different beast than Alabama & Saban. If your going to look at football results then Saban looks great. We all know that just a bad comparison. When it comes to graduating players and having them graduate with a degree of use then I would take Kelly hands down. I understand the goal is winning a national championship. ND won’t make the same type of choices with recruits (RKG’s) that most of the winning teams will. The SE Conference teams not only overlook grades but character as we’ve observed too. Unless the something drastic changes at ND I can’t see them competing year in and out for the NC. I can see them competing for an opportunity for a BCS game. Should ND ever enter the ACC as a full member in football that may change circumstances. Just as the BCS playoff will evolve over time. Again, I always enjoy reading your articles & Go Irish.

Divine inherited Montana, Browner, McAfee, Fry, Golic etc…

Holtz had to completely change the culture but the team was tougher and more disciplined from day one. That first year they played the toughest schedule in the country and were a few bad calls away from pulling off some huge upsets (ie. remember that touchdown to the tight end against Michigan that was called out of the end zone but replay showed he was clearly in and that clip on the kickoff return against Penn State?) While Faust did not leave the cupboard bare team speed was a major issue which Holtz fixed within 2 years.

Weis did not leave the cupboard bare but Kelly’s first two teams played just a undisciplined and sloppy as they had previously. Most of the talent was on offense but it was for a pro style offense. The talent on defense was from one recruiting year. Kelly had to fix the defense which he appears to have done but the jury is still out on his offense. I felt that last year’s team under acheived badly and was poorly coached.

When Kelly arrived he wasn’t shy about photo ops with Ara and Lou so fans naturally expected that sort of turn around and when it didn’t happen he caught alot of flak. Most of the doubts about him were weather or not he could recruit. the answer to that is “YES!” The doubts now are about his play calling.

Most of us didn’t believe in the Irish last Saturday. Had they lost a close one to a highly ranked team on the road this article would likely have taken a different tone. Next week’s article may have a different tone. The Wolverines aren’t coming to lay down. The point is, as Swarbrick recently said, this is about reversing a slide that occurred over many years for many reasons. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a classic change process.

I know. I’m a organizational change consultant. 🙂

This is a very good point, there has to be accountability “built in” to processes and just having a process is meaningless. Couple of points on that. Kelly and team try to build in accountability and it relates to playing time usually. If Longo reports that they’re not working out or committed, they get docked practice or even playing time. Good processes are ultimately about driving the right behavior. Stale processes generally don’t and aren’t beneficial. The key point about the Kelly processes I’ve looked is that I was impressed with the accountability and reinforcement built in to the process. Not sure if there’s an improvement mechanism built in, I suspect that happens in the coaching meeting.