‘An easy target’: What Notre Dame players said about Brian Kelly antics at LSU
Everyone has seen the videos. Everyone loves to talk about them too.
Let’s set the scene. Former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly — usually buttoned up, presentable and proper — standing on a circular platform with highly-ranked recruits, lights flashing and music blaring as the two dance and stunt for a camera rotating around them. LSU’s new recruiting tool is unique, among other things.
What do Kelly’s former Fighting Irish players think of it?
“I see that and I’m like, ‘Coach Kelly is so smart,'” senior cornerback Cam Hart said on the Inside The Garage podcast. “He knows exactly what he is doing. He probably goes home and knows he’s getting laughed at. That doesn’t fit his character, but it makes sense that he does that because that’s the environment that he’s in.”
LSU and the SEC surely provide a much different recruiting landscape than Notre Dame. Kelly once said he was “shopping down a different aisle” as the man in charge of the Irish. Now, he has access to the entire supermarket.
That’s not to say it’s impossible to recruit at Notre Dame. Kelly’s replacement, Marcus Freeman, has proven that in the last year and will likely continue to do so. The Irish signed the No. 7 class in the country in the most recent cycle and currently have the No. 2 class in the upcoming one.
But it’s probably also true that Freeman is having to work a lot harder than Kelly to land top-tier players. Freeman can’t just turn on a strobe light and flip on a jukebox to secure a commitment from a five-star.
Top 10
- 1
Don Brown fired
UMass parts ways with HC
- 2
Iowa QB out
Ankle injury sidelines Brendan Sullivan
- 3
Phil Longo fired
Wisconsin announces firing of OC
- 4
Peter Boulware chimes in
FSU legend offers Norvell advice
- 5
Paul Finebaum
'Kirby Smart was different'
Fighting Irish football
• Notre Dame WR coach Chansi Stuckey making impact on four-star WR Tyler Williams
• Walk-on graduate transfer punter Jon Sot answers the question ‘Why Notre Dame?’
Kelly said back in December one of his main reasons for leaving Notre Dame after 12 years was to have all the talent he desired at his fingertips. Never really billed as an elite recruiter, why stay somewhere he had to hop on airplanes and traverse the country to make inroads with recruits when he can do that in Baton Rouge atop a purple and gold dancing platform in the football facility?
“He’s getting what he wants, and he’s very meticulous about it,” Hart said. “It’s funny to me because a lot of people don’t know Coach Kelly personally. We understand it. We know Coach Kelly and know exactly what he’s doing, and it’s hilarious.”
The dancing is new. Everything else will likely remain the same. To former Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton, that won’t be a bad thing. Hamilton said, “Everyone is ragging on him now because he’s an easy target,” but just wait until he starts having success on the football field.
Hamilton said he believes that’s only a matter of time.
“If he ran for mayor of South Bend, he’d win in a landslide,” Hamilton said. “If he ran for governor of Indiana, he’d probably compete for that. When he gets in a room full of people, like in our team meetings, the way he goes about his speeches you’re locked in the whole time. It’s really well done. He gets the message across really well. He does a great job of motivating on a day-to-day basis. He’s going to have success for that.”
