re: If you could choose between Riley or Kelly

quote:

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If you could choose between Riley or Kelly
Who would it be?

I would have chose Riley before, but after doing research on Kelly, he may be the better of the two.

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I admit I was hopeful about Riley, but I'll be honest- I was looking at his record at a big P5 program.

So, taking that into account, Riley vs Kelly:
age: Riley, with a caveat. He's a lot younger, but that makes him way more likely to move to the NFL. I can't see Kelly doing this. So they might coach here the same amount of time.
record: Push. Riley has a great record at Oklahoma, Kelly a similarly great record at Notre Dame.
Schemes/philosophy: push again. Riley clearly has a much more potent offensive scheme in play at Oklahoma; but defense for him has been optional at best.
Kelly seems to have a traditional focus, wants to have a good D to go with a solid offense. Broader approach.
accomplishments: This goes to Kelly, as Riley has just rode Stoop's success and tweaked it some. Kelly made his name at Cincy (Fickell?), then moved to Notre Dame and, if anything, improved his reputation. I'm curious to see if Riley can take USC and improve it; I'm curious to see if Napier is able to handle Florida too.
Kelly isn't as sexy a hire, but I'm also more confident he can run LSU the way it should be. I'm hoping early Miles level of success- 10-2 average, strong challenge annually for the West.
Attitude: this also goes to Kelly, stepping into the SEC when he could have sat comfortably at Notre Dame winning 10-11 games a year until he retired. Even before the hire, he took a home-and-home with UGA, home-and-home with Michigan, played at Oklahoma a few years ago, signed off on the single-year entry to the ACC in 2020 (and split with Clemson that year). Say what you want about Notre Dame, they do seem to try to play who they can.
Riley- even before he bailed on the team, it was questionable how much he wanted to play in big games. Yeah, he did go win at Ohio State, impressive for anyone. Not sure who else they played in his tenure in the regular season.

I think Kelly is the better coach, and the better hire with one caveat- I hope he wants to coach, and didn't just cash in. That's the only reason I think he would fail here.

One last thing about their demeanors-
Riley bitching when Baylor kicked the FG... that reminded me of Petrino when Les pounded his arse in 2011.
Kelly took his losses like a man, though I'm sure they ate his arse up.

I don't think the media is doing our opponents any favors by ragging on him right now. I think if he didn't have a chip on his shoulder before, he will now.