What should we make of another Notre Dame football social media gaffe?

Notre Dame football is embroiled in another social media controversy after Jerry Tillery liked three tweets seemingly advocating for Les Miles to become ND’s new coach.

Late Oct. 8 and early Oct. 9, after Notre Dame had just dropped an away contest to NC State, sophomore defensive lineman Jerry Tillery liked three tweets that called for Les Miles to coach at Notre Dame.

Those tweets were the following:

OK, this could conceivably be sold as an endorsement for Miles to become Notre Dame’s new defensive coordinator. After all, improvement under Greg Hudson notwithstanding, the unit does need a new leader.

This one, though, this is a little harder to explain away. Though perhaps Tillery could claim he was simply expressing admiration for a good head coach.

There you have it. Tillery liked a tweet that pretty clearly calls for current head coach Brian Kelly to be fired. And that was even before the Irish lost to Stanford this past weekend.

Tillery has not been made available to the media since the incident, though he did post an explanation this Sunday.

I’m not usually one to put too much store in social media scandals. When Brian Kelly’s Twitter account liked tweets calling for Brian VanGorder’s job and he blamed the incident on a staffer, I was inclined to accept his explanation at face value. After all, it made sense that Kelly wouldn’t bother to run his own Twitter, and it made sense that an upset staffer tapped a button without thinking.

But Tillery’s actions, as well as his explanation, are harder to rationalize. For one, no one but Tillery runs his account, of that I’m pretty sure. When Kelly was asked about his own tweets, he never attempted to say the likes weren’t meaningful, he just said they shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

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Tillery, though, unliked those three tweets but is still trying to say likes don’t equal endorsements. You can’t have it both ways.

For another, likes on Twitter may not be legally binding contracts, but for Tillery to pretend like they’re nothing is a bit rich. Why would you like something if you disagreed with it? Journalists are known to disclaim that retweets are not endorsements, but even journalists know better than to like something they do not support.

Twitter etiquette aside, Tillery, who by all accounts is a smart, personable guy, should have known what the optics of liking those tweets would be. Maybe he is fully committed to Brian Kelly, but he should have known it would not appear that way once he liked tweets suggesting he’s not.

And lastly, Tillery’s relationship with Miles is not nonexistent. A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Tillery visited LSU many times during his recruitment and the Tigers were among the few teams that earned an official visit. Miles personally visited him as well. So Tillery knows firsthand what Miles is like and seriously considered playing for him. Perhaps he’s hoping for a reunion in South Bend?

Besides, Tillery was suspended last year for the Fiesta Bowl, though he has played well this year.

Meanwhile, the media asked Brian Kelly about it, and his response was, essentially, who cares?

You, the average Notre Dame fan, might be inclined to agree with Kelly. Twitter, after all, is just a social media forum where young kids do kid stuff, and it doesn’t mean anything for the actual team.

But think again. I can’t come up with a rational way to explain Tillery’s actions as anything other than ones borne out of frustration and annoyance with the way this season has played out, especially amongst the coaching staff. And where there’s smoke, more often than not there’s fire.

Next: Stanford slip-ups cost Kelly, Irish

I’m not saying Tillery will be openly insubordinate or even that his play will drop off significantly as he just gives up. But I do believe that his actions indicate there’s mounting frustration in the locker room and that Kelly is close to losing his team’s loyalty. When you’re 2-5, people start looking for someone to blame. That’s only natural. Kelly had better hope his team doesn’t blame him.