Thrown Under the Bus

Bump, clunk, flop, folks are jumping and falling off the Notre Dame bandwagon in droves.  We here at the Station are fully involved in supporting our Irish lads and the entire coaching staff.  It is rather disappointing to read some of the bulletin boards and websites gouging Head Coach Brian Kelly. Kelly is taking hits from running out of toilet paper in the stadium restrooms to overzealous ushers asking fans to sit down.

Here is the official Subway Alumni Station position.

Coaches discuss players’ actions in three places.

**  The Locker room

**  In the privacy of the coaches office

**  In the film room

Excerpts from Sunday October 23 teleconference with the media:

Q. I know last night you mentioned you weren't going to fall on the sword, and I know people interpret that in a lot of different ways. How do you hope your players interpret that? What do you hope that that does to them?

COACH KELLY: Well, we always have the conversations first before I talk to you guys. You get it second. My conversation with our football team is what we talk about in the locker room, and then it's left for you guys to interpret any way you want. My players know exactly how I feel. There is one thing we don't have a problem with is communication. It's really clear with our guys as to what my feelings are after a game, what my expectations are of our football team, and we never put the loss squarely on one or the other. It's a team loss; I lost; our players lost. The specifics of that stay within the locker room.

Q. Cierre (Wood) has been pretty consistent for you this year. Last night was not one of those times. When did you say to him after the game? This was a big moment for him, USC, game day captain, all that?

COACH KELLY: He didn't live up to the expectations that we have for our players at Notre Dame. He's got to find himself and put himself in a position where he can be his best when his best is needed.

Q. Obviously putting Dayne (Crist) back in there and seeing him fumble like that, do you have to worry at all about maybe his mental makeup going back in there knowing he just got that one opportunity and it kind of went the other way on him?

COACH KELLY: No, I don't have to worry about it, he does.

New Jersey's For Crist and Wood

What Kelly said in answering those three separate questions was wrong.  He basically threw Wood and Crist under the bus.  The Head Coach always takes the blame and hands the accolades to the team and individual players.  Same thing in business if you want to prosper.  Same thing in the military for the leaders.  I still remember the phrase, “the commander is responsible for everything his unit does or fails to do.”

Now we watched the game and saw the replays just like you did.  It is no one’s fault but Dayne Crist’s for the fumbled snap.  It is Cierre Wood’s fault that he failed to catch the backwards pass and compounded failure of not recovering or knocking it out of bounds.  They both have been schooled, practiced and trained in what to do.  Kelly can’t be out on the field to do it for them.  He didn't tell the media anything they didn't already know.   

Brian Kelly is very passionate.  Football is his life.  We still support him and see great things in the future for the Irish.  We are going to quit reading from all the 20-20 hindsight, Monday morning quarterbacks out there in ND Nation and the media.

For most of the Team, this will be the end for them unless they also go into coaching.  If they do, hopefully they won’t throw anyone under the bus.

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