by LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
@LonnPhillips
As LSU's NFL Pro Day took over the national football focus this past Wednesday, LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly gave media access to a few national reporters.
They asked Kelly "why did you leave Notre Dame?", and despite everyone from Dan Patrick to Rees Davis, or many of us within LSU's media world asking this same exact question more than a few times since late November, it appeared CBS & the Associated Press (among others) wanted something more headline-worthy.
Well, Brian Kelly gave it to them, by simply answering their questions with candor. As he said before, the Irish Tiger left Notre Dame to go somewhere with the "resources to win a National Championship".
But once those seemingly bland quotes finally hit a national stage, a firestorm suddenly ensued....
In the wake of details about LSU's dedicated team chefs, fixed place within college football's best conference, state of the art facilities, alongside an overall commitment to student athletes, Notre Dame, falling well short in each category, are once again steaming mad at their all time winningest coach:
During those interviews, Kelly discussed how he was forced to "fight" for increased support from the university, always met with one wall or obstacle after another.
Across 12 years in South Bend, Brian Kelly could handle recruiting trail obstacles or issues within his staff & roster due to a lack of resources, he understood Notre Dame couldn't get 99.9% of America's 5 star recruits, but when the very program he helped solidify back to relevance began placing one roadblock after another directly in his championship-hunting path, Kelly knew he had taken Notre Dame as far as he could.
The Irish Tiger tried to run a championship program at a university which refused to do what is necessary to become one.....leaving alongside at least eight top assistants & support staffers who believed in his work at Notre Dame, all as cell phone video of Kelly's departing words to players was leaked and his former school made the entire move a media spectacle.
After 12 years, Kelly couldn't even command the power to bring in his own team chef...
The Notre Dame athletic department wouldn't hear any of it....
Now, after a vast circulation & condemnation of his quotes, there is a widespread mob scene running social media thanks to Notre Dame's mouth-foaming fans.
The narrative being created has cultivated a fiery landscape where Kelly is cast as the villain, all for simply departing Notre Dame for resources & support he knew he would never receive at South Bend.
To Bryan Driscoll and other hilarious "writers", Brian Kelly isn't just the bad guy, he is actively seeking to destroy Notre Dame....simply by abandoning the very school who's athletic department scoffed at his requests for an attempt at the best.....the university who's very fans thanked him by demonizing his every step.
Then, at the same time they punish their greatest coach, these same writers blame Kelly for every single calamity, mistake, defeat or error which has ever occurred at Notre Dame....of course, after he leaves....
This is a case of "jealousy gone Karen", where college football fans & media become participants in their own simulated cancel culture, attempting to assassinate Brian Kelly's character at every turn, denouncing his every move at South Bend, and condemning his LSU hire as the act of a bloodthirsty egomaniac.
You'd think they were describing Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood or simply Urban Meyer on a Saturday night at Mar-a-Lago...
But in crying about why Kelly left, Notre Dame made damn sure every high school recruit in America knew the exact reasons why this generation's second best head coach left Indiana during late 2021......
South Bend was an environment mostly tailored in opposition to success, from location, a lack of resources, support or conference power...
I get it, he left before a potential spot in a CFP Semifinal game...but saying "Brian Kelly didn't do enough for Notre Dame" or acting like LSU's new Head Coach "bailed on South Bend" is revisionist history, plain and simple.
The anger from these frothing Notre Dame media-lites is embarrassing, reaking of shameless chest-beating histrionics, referencing Kelly's Tesla, the balcony from his office at LSU Ops, detailing Louisiana State's lavish investments compared to Notre Dame's cheap carelessness in such a way I was wondering if these dramatists were expecting us to cry for South Bend or break out into a Charles Dickens-themed ballad of woe.
All I can say to these hucksters?
Look at Brian Kelly's 12 years, all time wins leader record, BCS title game appearance and two CFP jaunts: what did he receive in return from y'all?
A swift kick in the ass for finally saying "I'm going to do something for myself for the first time in 12 years"....
It's an absolute joke that we're even discussing why Brian Kelly left Notre Dame, such is the obvious answer to that question, but since we're here, now armed with intimate knowledge of how poorly and pathetically Notre Dame's program is actually run, give me a reason as to why Kelly should've stayed in South Bend...
I get it...you feel insecure.
You're hearing that Brian's got a hotter new date...
You're finding out Kelly already proposed after a few months....and you're still beating yourself up after bailing on him at the altar three times.
It's okay.
We'll get through this together.
By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
@LonnPhillips
Copyright 2022 Uninterrupted Writings Inc