Every December reminds me why I love to hate college football. And I’m not here to talk about the insane BCS “play-off” system either. It’s the process of coaching changes and the destruction it leaves the school that gets dumped.
Why does the NCAA condone a system in which its top coaches are forced to make career decisions in early December, when they should be attending to the business of winning big games? Does all the hard work and team camaraderie that has been achieved since August get lost in the dollar signs?
It’s all about recruiting. It’s about National Signing Day, which for some reason occurs in February. Not having a coach for a long enough time period can lead an athletic director to pull the trigger in panic and drop the ball (see Notre Dame for the past three coaches).
Cincinnati's Brian Kelly has been a winner everywhere. No need to barrage you with stats but the guy has never had a losing season. He has taken the UC football program and given it an extreme makeover winning addition. The excitement for UC football has never been so high. Prior to his arrival, the Bearcats had only one season with double-digit wins (1951).
The team is undefeated and ranked No. 5, a year after getting to their first ever BCS bowl. Kelly has assumed the throne in the Queen City and is as beloved a figure as Pete Rose right now. The guy can rob a bank in the Nati' and get a slap on the wrist. He is the savior, the one that did the unthinkable.
All this excitement is now being transformed into paranoia and depression.
Once Notre Dame started going down the tubes the rumors began to swirl. Kelly is Irish, he is Catholic, he's an east coast guy, he can handle the media pressure because his dad was a politician were all reasons he could fit the job description.
Forget the fact that Kelly had once told the media how much he loved the Cincinnati school system and his kids told him they don't want to ever move. That was waaaay back in September, ancient news now.
As Cincinnati's historic season rolled on, so did the rumors of their coach. Once Notre Dame lost to Navy, it turned into a Kansas size tornado of speculation. As Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer, John Gruden, Gary Patterson, and Kirk Ferentz all publicly declined, Kelly's name crept farther and farther up the list.
This week alone there has been a report on Irishcentral.com that a so-called “Irish expert” already confirmed he will sign a contract on Monday. Another report says that Kelly announced he was staying put on a Cincinnati radio station.
The No. 5 Bearcats (11-0, 6-0) play for a Big East title and possible berth in the BCS National Championship Game on Saturday at Pittsburgh (9-2, 5-1). The players and their coach have been forced to talk about a team they might never play more than the team they play for a Big East Championship this week.
Kelly isn’t being vocal about it to his players either.
"He hasn't addressed it," tight end Ben Guidugli said. "We would have liked for him to address it, but he didn't. It's not taking anything away from this game. All the work we have done, we are not going to let anybody take away from this game we got coming up."
An 18th-straight regular season victory, combined with a Nebraska upset of Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game, could deliver a spot in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 8 against the winner of the SEC title. At the very least it would be back-to-back BCS Bowl appearances to match consecutive Big East titles.
But Kelly could be the next Irish coach as early as Sunday or Monday. Kelly’s even familiar with the awkward situation. After Mark Dantonio left Cincinnati in the dust to go off to the Big Ten to coach Michigan St, Kelly came in to lead the Bearcats to a win in the International Bowl.
The bottom line is that the Irish will flash enough dough to get their man and the Bearcats will revert to the norm. A season that should be so memorable, a season that could end with a perfect record just leaves fans with the depressing knowledge of knowing that it’s team is nothing more than a pit stop on the coaching carousel.
Kelly was on the verge of owning the city. He was inching toward the Bob Huggins stratosphere of king of the city. He could have signed a 15-year contract extension if he wanted.
Instead he will take the money and slowly get beaten to a pulp by the Notre Dame media. Every year will be like sticking your head in a pressure cooker and hoping for the best. At first he will be loved, but look how far Charlie Weiss fell after taking the Irish to a BCS game in his first season.
Good luck getting to a BCS bowl with that defense BK.
“It’s not comfortable for me,’’ Kelly said Tuesday. “It’s not comfortable for those involved. (But) it’s the reality of it. The only thing I can control is the message every day to our football players, how we can become champions. I can’t handle all these other things out there.’’
Yes you can actually. Do what so many others have done and say thanks, but no thanks. Instead, the most legendary year of an entire program has been overshadowed by a 6-6 team’s interest in their coach. This is the way college football works in 2009. Loyalty is drowned by fame and fortune.
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