re: Nobody came with Kelly

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He's not in Kansas anymore, and the LSU faithful better hope he realizes it, and is not resting on the laurels of competing against Eastern Northwest School of Technology.

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He built a national championship program in Division II. He led C. Michigan to their first 10-win season in 27 years after the program had 9 losing seasons in 10 years. He led Cincinnati to their first three ranked seasons ever including an undefeated regular season. He finished in the Top 5 three times at ND, something they hadn’t done in 17 years before he arrived. He’s shown time and time again that he can raise programs to new heights as he has progressively moved up to higher levels of competition. Few, if any, coaches in history have shown an ability to do that. The one thing you are questioning is actually the one thing he has proven most emphatically in his career.

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I hope you are right. LSU being good makes it so much sweeter when Arkansas beats them. Recruiting isn't ever going to be a big problem at LSU, but much like the games now, BK is in direct competition with SEC foes. He's not in Kansas anymore, and the LSU faithful better hope he realizes it, and is not resting on the laurels of competing against Eastern Northwest School of Technology.

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Arkansas hasn't beaten a good LSU team since 2007.

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He built a national championship program in Division II.

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It took 11 years to get Grand Valley State to the DII national championship. 12 years to win it. There's not a snowballs chance in hell that LSU has that kind of patience, not to mention the fact that he would be in his 70's if you did.

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He led C. Michigan to their first 10-win season in 27 years after the program had 9 losing seasons in 10 years.

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Looks like he did a good job at Central Michigan. 4-7 first year, 6-5 second year, 10-4 third year. Not exactly fighting against the big boys though, was he? people in this very thread shite on the old SWC. This was the Mid America Conference.

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He led Cincinnati to their first three ranked seasons ever including an undefeated regular season.

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Dantonio had gone 4-7, and then 8-5 in the two years prior to Kelly, so they were probably on the up, but sure, he did great at Cincinnati too.

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He finished in the Top 5 three times at ND, something they hadn’t done in 17 years before he arrived.

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ND played 47 games in 12 years against teams that were ranked at the time of the game, including bowl games. If you include the 5 vacated wins against ranked teams, he went 23-24 in those games.

For comparison, Arkansas played 67 games against ranked teams in that same 12 year span, that's 20 more games against ranked teams, and that only includes 3 bowl games against ranked opponents. So Kelly is taking a massive step up in competition.

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So Kelly is taking a massive step up in competition.

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You don’t think it was a massive step up going from DII to C. Michigan? From CMU to Cincinnati? From Cincinnati to ND? Of course all those stops were well below the level of the SEC. That was my point. He’s already shown he can step up in competition and raise the new program to new heights three times. It may have taken him some time in his first stop, but he was also just learning how to be a head coach. The re-builds at the other schools were much quicker.

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I don't think Kelly is a bad coach. But I don't think anything he has done in his career to date even warrants his mention in the same breath as Nick Saban. The next few years will tell the tale on whether he is a great coach or not.

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I think you are taking the Saban quotes out of context. The point was that no one followed Saban and things turned out okay for both LSU and him. It was to show that even if no one followed Kelly it would not be proof of a pending disaster. I don’t think anyone was using it as proof that Kelly is Saban’s equal. I agree he’ll need to add some hardware to his collection before he can be mentioned in the same breath. We’ve already seen that LSU does not need a Saban caliber coach to win championships.

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And my point is that not another human on this planet has done the things that Nick Saban has done. Acting like it is in the realm of possibility for BK is putting the cart way out in front of the horse.

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And as I already said, no one said that.

Saban returned to Baton Rouge from Lansing Michigan in an empty plane December 1999.

Michigan St fans thought that said alot about Nick and their program. Turned out ok for LSU.