Earlier this week, former Notre Dame football head coach Brian Kelly made some comments about his former school that actually seemed to be generous and amiable towards the Fighting Irish. And then I took another look at what he was really saying.
“I’m happy for all those guys, I pull for them,” Kelly told CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello. And if he had stopped there, it would have been the kind of comments that might have even started to repair his relationship with people back in South Bend.
Maybe Notre Dame football fans would stop reveling in every loss that LSU is dealt. Maybe they wouldn’t constantly be lording it over Bayou Bengals backers whenever Marcus Freeman reaches another level of success and the Tigers are forced to celebrate a Texas Bowl victory. But Kelly went a step further and had to make it about himself.
Ex-Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly tries to take credit for Irish success
“A lot of the guys there that are on both sides of the ball, I recruited,” Kelly added. “Obviously I want to see those guys win it all, and I think they’re in a great position. Totally excited for those guys.”
I will freely admit its possible I am oversensitive to the “I recruited a lot of the guys on both sides of the ball,” but he didn’t have to throw that extra bit in. People know he’s the former Notre Dame head coach, that’s why he was asked the question. He doesn’t need to explain why he’s rooting for the school playing against the program he has no past ties to.
But talking about how he recruited a lot - which is an exaggeration at this point as Marcus Freeman has reshaped quite a bit of the roster in a short period of time while also cracking open the potential of guys like Xavier Watts- sounds an awful lot like “Marcus Freeman is winning with my players.”
It sounds like he’s taking credit for the success the Fighting Irish are having this season. Especially since he certainly could have given a shoutout to Freeman specifically, if he’d wanted to.
When Brian Kelly left South Bend for LSU he explained the rationale as wanting “to be in an environment where I have the resourses to win a national championship.”
Kelly’s had the resources. He hasn’t gotten the job done. And now he’s hoping he can take a little bit of credit should Notre Dame football and Marcus Freeman win the title next week.