I like many of you was disgusted by what I saw on the field last Saturday afternoon. No, it was NOT the half-dozen players that did not play up to their potential. Nor the game delays because of terrible weather. But rather the enraged, screaming of Irish Head Coach Brian Kelly. You could not miss it. The NBC producer went back to the same scene over and over again as Kelly raged at players. Even the announcers were forced to comment on the tirades. T.J. Jones, Tommy Rees, Jonas Gray, Dayne Crist, Ben Turk, Theo Riddick all saw and heard the ranting in their face by Coach Kelly.
What Coach Kelly did was wrong and displays poor mental discipline, lousy judgment and timing, plus a lack of core human values. There is time enough after the game to correct players, either in your office or on the practice field. Nothing positive comes from yelling at your players after they make a mistake in a game situation, leave that for the locker room at half time or after the game.
** It gives fodder to the media, opponents and all the Notre Dame hatters.
** It is embarrassing to the player, his parents and his teammates.
** It may very well tank the player.
** It may cause a lack of confidence by the entire Team.
** It discredits the University and its values.
** It could discourage recruits and their parents.
** It brings into question your competency as a Head Coach and Leader.
It appears the temper tantrums are not only Notre Dame Football induced. There are numerous pictures out there doing the same thing while at Cincinnati. He did it last year as well but as numerous in one single game.
Unlike some, I fully support Coach Kelly and his efforts to turn the Football Program around. The jury is still out and will so for some time. Give him a chance and the benefit of the doubt on that issue. If in a position to do so, I would encourage and recommend Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick and other University Officials to get Coach Kelly into anger management counseling as soon as practical.
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Go Irish, Beat the Skunkbears.
4 comments:
I remember how Holtz used to get so physically upset. He had a kid assigned who would fetch his cap from up in the stands. He gave one lineman a little jerk of the face mask. A big deal was made out of that. He went bezerk one time with a blackboard trying to devise a defense to Army's wishbone. There were stories of how he'd jump on guys in practice
But overall, his image was a wirey little guy squatting down, pulling grass out by the roots, and kids and parents weren't intimidated by him.
Kelly is implanting a bad image that will repulse borderline recruits.
If he continues this on Saturday I'm going to write him a letter.
Grim Jack
Please read "On Yelling" at http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/ for a bit a sanity about this issue.
I am very disappointed in the puritanical, politically-correct, "anger-management" reaction by some fans.
A father with a real relationship with his son can "get mad" at his son and his son knows that his father loves him.
A father without a real relationship with his son is "walking on egg shells" all the time. If there isn't established trust, no amount of "gentle talk" can substitute for it.
Please don't confuse passion for the game and a bit of an Irish temper with "anger issues".
Brian Kelly has a lot of integrity in my estimation. I appreciate him being himself. I think he is great for the players. He handled the Michael Floyd issue perfectly. Kelly isn't a fake.
Some day he will appear before God; and yes, before he enters heaven, he will have to be perfect. But on my part, I appreciate his humanity and I refuse to exact perfection from him - that is God's business.
I need to keep working on "getting the beam" out of my eye before I get the "speck" out of Kelly's eye regarding Kelly's sideline manners.
Football is football. Anger as a passion is "neutral" - intrinsically neither good or bad. Please don't read so much in it.
I did read ‘your loyal sons’ bit on the yelling. I will concede that if we had pounded South Florida, then BK’s antics would be better regarded as a passion for the game and total caring. But the way the game went, it was apparent that the purple face was a burst of anger directed at one player after another. It only added to the frustration suffered by the fans.
My high school coach was like this. He’d actually slug and kick guys on the practice field. We thought this was normal. One instance, we had a sophomore third string quarterback who got so nervous he couldn’t get through the count without giggling. Coach would rush in and kick him so hard in the pants he’d come off the ground. Eventually it became clear he wasn’t giggling, he was hysterical in fear. If a pass slipped through your fingers, you wanted to run for the locker room and pack out. He wouldn’t call you over and ask how you were holding your hands. He wouldn’t know what to tell you.
0-16 first half; 20-7 second half. We ran out of time. Ruffer’s kick might have helped. Missed try for after hurt. An awful lot of if only.
I think we do better against Michigan. It’s just a matter of how good they are.
Grim Jack
Go Kelly! They needed to be yelled at!!
This is football....
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