ND fan's view of Brian Kelly

Hi all. Not here to troll! As a longtime fan of Notre Dame (since 1970) and as someone who watches every play of every game, just wanted to give you my impressions of Brian Kelly that mirror pretty much what other Irish fans see. First, the pros:

- Excellent judge of talent on the recruiting trail. Is amazing at spotting under-recruited and under-rated players.

- Excellent at developing players, as evidenced by the number of players he's put into the NFL.

- Teams play hard and with passion and effort.

- Hires excellent assistants.

- Proven winner everywhere he's been.

Now, the cons:

- Mediocre to terrible at offensive game planning and game management. Head-scratching playcalling. Often has no Plan B, much less Plan C, when Plan A isn't working on offense.

- Will often leave more talented and even game-breaking players on the bench in favor of lesser-talented - and in some cases, far less talented - players he considers more fundamentally sound.

- Plays not to lose instead of playing aggressively to win.

- Often struggles to beat teams that have far less talent and gets blown out in big games. Very poor record against Top 10 teams.

General comments:

- Some of you are glad Tommy Rees decided not to join him as offensive coordinator. While BK generally leaves the defensive game planning and playcalling to his coordinator, he has a heavy hand in the offense. Make no mistake - Rees may be the coordinator, but BK designed the playbook, does the game planning and, if not calling every specific play, definitely has a strong say in what is called.

- Some of you are saying it's not a big deal about almost none of his assistants following him to Baton Rouge, saying Nick Saban had the same experience after leaving Michigan State. Remember, at the time Saban was not considered the cream of the crop like Kelly is perceived to be. It is common for assistants to follow an elite coach in a coaching change - look at Lincoln Riley to USC, for example. Mike Elston, who has followed Kelly at every stop and is about as loyal as it gets, chose this time to stay at Notre Dame. BK alienated his whole coaching staff by how he handled this, but it goes beyond that.

- You will find BK is not a nice guy. You can justify it by saying nice guys finish last, and he's there not to make friends and his job is to win. And I would agree with that. Just telling you what you're getting.

- In summary, you will be happy with your new coach for a while. But unless he makes some fundamental changes to how he goes about things, you are likely in for what we experienced: Playing down to the competition and not being competitive against the Alabamas and Georgias, or any other team that is legit. But as I said, there's a balance. He's a proven winner and will win you a lot of games. Will he take you to the mountaintop once again? Personally, I doubt it, but no one can predict the future with any certainty. Good luck going forward!