Notre Dame football: Kelly to be next coach

South Bend Tribune ^ | 12/10/09 | Eric Hansen

[TonyInOhio]

SOUTH BEND — The search is finally over.

According to two university sources familiar with the search process, University of Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly will be named Charlie Weis' successor at Notre Dame.

Kelly is expected to meet with his team Thursday night before the Bearcats' football banquet to inform them of his decision. The media were suddenly banned from the banquet Thursday afternoon.

Kelly, 48, is 34-6 in his third full season at UC. He is 160-54-2 in his 19th year of coaching at Cincinnati, Central Michigan and Grand Valley State.

Weis was officially fired Nov. 30 following five seasons with a 35-27 record.

[TonyInOhio]

Congrats to your son. What year is he? Our daughter was unable to get in even with the "family name," but I think it's in part because her father writes scathing posts about ND's "management" sometimes. Anyway, our niece is a freshman there which is nice.

Thanks! My son is in his fourth year - he's in the School of Architecture, which is a five-year program, so he'll be back on the field for one more year.

I saw you said your son was in the band. He might appreciate this short video (that was taken after a number of beers so excuse the focus), but it was great because it "fit" right in with a post his dad did.

I enjoyed seeing that, thanks. The Band (all 380 of them) really becomes like a family within the Notre Dame Family. It's been wonderful for us to be associated with such a great tradition.

Notre Dame was my son's dream school, and despite the liberals running the place, he still loves it. We live in a tiny Ohio town and are most definately middle-class; I'm proud of my son for being admitted and am grateful he had the opportunity.

[TonyInOhio]

Their faculty and more importantly a majority of the student body is comprised of wayward Catholics and secular humanists.

Respectfully, you're wrong. My son is a student at Notre Dame, and I've seen the chapels packed with students and the Eucharistic Procession that takes place each Holy Week.

Notre Dame is, indeed, a college, not a seminary. They have a mix of students, Catholic, and not, faithful, and not. But the traditions of the place live on, despite being run by a bunch of liberals.

[mlizzy]

Yes, you have very much to be proud of.:) It's a very difficult school to be accepted into, and he'll always have that wonderful degree. One of our sons (the one who took the video) would LOVE to go to graduate school at ND, but the monies are not here. It's one of my dreams for him though. He'd go back if he was 40. I know what you mean about there being such great tradition there. My husband wrote this as part of a book he wrote years ago and it's why we have so much hope for the University's Catholicism as well:

"Anyone who has read the works of Fr. McBrien, and several other professors, knows that there is a threat to (Notre Dame's) Catholicism from within as well. But unlike Harvard or Yale, Northwestern or Southern Cal, all former Christian universities that are now secular schools, Notre Dame has the weapon to fight all heresies, namely Notre Dame Herself ... for the modern infidels to take control here, they would have to blow the Dame off the Dome, rip the heart (the Eucharist) out of Sacred Heart (Church) and lastly, rock by rock, tear the Grotto apart. And legions of Her sons and daughters would willingly die martyrs before they would allow that to happen." -from "Champions of Faith"

P.S. When my husband interviewed Holtz at ND Joyce Center, I was able to sit in on the whole interview. He's a good man. It was really cool.:)

[scrabblehack]

This story came up before (1-2 weeks?) and it turned out false. Kelly was said to be staying at Cincy.

[pburgh01]

Like I said a majority of the student body and faculty are pro-choice cafeteria Catholics. You really wanna argue that? The place is a liberal cesspool like almost all the other big name schools. Lots of pious Catholic universities in the US, Notre Dame is no longer on of them. Should have sent your kid to Michigan saved 10k a year and gotten a better education.

[Mr. Blonde]

They aren’t winning because they dropped their wrestling program to keep NCAA investigators from looking into the athletic dept as a whole. At least that is the reason I like.

[Nosterrex]

It is being reported tonight on ESPN that Kelly is going to Notre Dame. Meyer (Florida) and Saban (Alabama) are both Catholic and pro-life. Not only that, they are the best coaches in the NCAA. It is a shame that Notre Dame never seriously tried to get either one.

[irish guard]

Ara was NOT a Catholic, but Devine was. Does it all matter?

For the past 15 years Notre Dame has cared little for actually putting excellence on the field. They are not willing to pay the price, nor hire the coach. Some of it has to do with lowering admissions standards. They would prefer we alums shell out the money to see 8-4 or 6-6 teams play each Saturday.

My patience is running thin.

irish guard

[irish guard]

Notre Dame has it's issues and there are many liberal professors there, but I would hesitate to call it a cesspool. Unfortunately, the prior leadership, Fr. Monk Malloy embraced multiculturalism over his own Catholicism. However, there are also many very devout and good Catholic professors there. If you know which classes to take and where to look, they are there.

irish guard

[TonyInOhio]

Should have sent your kid to Michigan saved 10k a year and gotten a better education.

Thanks for the tip, but he's getting a swell education where he is. We actually visited Michigan when he was looking at schools; we left unimpressed, and unless you're in-state, their financial aid sucks. Notre Dame's School of Architecture is rated much higher, too. Of course, they were working hard to reinstitute affirmative action at the time, so that didn't sit well, either. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more liberal town than Ann Arbor!

Besides, as a Buckeye, the idea was, simply, repellent.

[Radl]

After having a conversation with a college ref I don’t spend much time watching football games. I do follow Euro soccer though. There are a lot less judgment calls.