re: Just like that…Kelly is vindicated

In ‘12 and ‘18, Kelly finished #4 and #5 in the Final AP. Freeman just finished #2.

Kelly has access to a ton of talent. NIL was in a 4 month infancy when he left ND. That and the portal are still very “young”. It’s looking more and more like parity will be the new norm. My guess is that as time goes by more 2nd and 3rd string talent will seek playing time elsewhere, especially if they have professional aspirations. It seems that the “haves” “stockpiling” of talent is going to be more difficult.
The new playoff structure skews wildly away from past “perfection”. There are now more ways and opportunities to win the NC.
Can Kelly navigate college football’s new world order? He was able to pull a generational talent from ASU. The Jayden Daniels LSU teams lost 4 and 3 games. Those teams won the Citrus and Reliaquest Bowls.
If you told me pre season that an LSU QB would win the Heisman I’d immediately think that they were in the NC hunt and favored. To date Kelly’s on field results don’t match LSU’s stellar legacy.
Kelly knows he’s asked for an LSU 4th year mulligan after his year 3 spiel. He needs a deep run next year or the new coach drumbeat will grow louder..:

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In ‘12 and ‘18, Kelly finished #4 and #5 in the Final AP. Freeman just finished #2.

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It’s a little long winded for a tshirt or hat but you can print it on a cup and read it while spinning the cup around.

LINK

It’s a melt disguised as a flex which is like hitting the Rant’s G-spot

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Seriously not sure why the media has chosen to make so much of Notre dames season about Kelly. He got ND just as far before there was a 12 team playoff.

Seems like folks would be grateful for what he built there and not still be so bitter about the guy leaving but whatever.

Freeman had a nice season yes. Can he sustain it? Nobody knows. May have been a flash in the pan. Even Ed O looked like a good coach for one year lol.


Enjoy your bragging rights for an offseason and thanks for being civil.

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Technically, yes, Notre Dame in 2024 did go as far as Brian Kelly's Notre Dame team did in 2012. But how they got there are two completely different things. The 2012 squad had several squeakers against poor teams and was exposed by Alabama. The 2024 team, while performing poorly for the middle 30 minutes against Ohio State, at least came back and made the outcome in doubt until the very end, and at the end the team looked like it belonged on the field. Not so with the 2012 squad. Then there's the matter of Kelly's postseason and big-game record at Notre Dame. This is why the media has been going gaga over Freeman in part, because he has three big postseason wins (at least by traditional standards...more on that later).

Having said that, most ND fans recognize his role in reviving and rebuilding the team. What we were unhappy about is the constant blowouts in big games and failure to win any of them. I was disappointed when he left for LSU as I was hopeful he was about to turn the corner. However, on Notre Dame's main discussion board, Notre Dame Nation Rock's House, everyone there hated him for various reasons. He interviewed with the Eagles during preparations for the 2012 title game. He didn't appreciate how windy it was the day Declan Sullivan died. He was a lazy recruiter (maybe that's now different at LSU). He often publicly blamed players for losses. And other reasons.

I haven't made any friends on this board when I gave my opinion about things earlier, and that's okay. Others here have diminished Notre Dame's success this year with some ridiculous caveats, but I understand that, too. Should LSU have a great playoff run next year, I would be among the first to say congratulations and not caveat your success. Even though we are fans of different teams, I'd like to think we are all part of the greatest team game in history, and we can discuss things without getting insulted or demeaned.

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But how they got there are two completely different things. The 2012 squad had several squeakers against poor teams

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Stopped reading here.

Freeman lost to NIU

Again, ND has changed significantly in their stances and investments because of Kelly leaving.

Kelly was begging them to put more into the program and they refused. Once he left for LSU, they realized why and started to do what he asked for and you are seeing the results now along with the transfer portal.

As bad as LSU has looked at times this past two seasons, they never lost to a team equivalent to Northern Illinois, much less at home.

The worst loss was to USC in a neutral site game or the A&M game in 2022 after a massive rebuild.

ND losses the past three years under Freeman:
2024 Northern Illinois
2022 Stanford
2022 Marshall

All at home. They lost to Stanford and Marshall with a team coming off a top 5 finish the previous season under Kelly.

LSU has 2 losses at home in 3 years and both to top 12 teams in Bama and Tennessee.

They are in different situations and good for Freeman succeeding how he has. He has not done anything special.

6 in how many years? 3 in how many years? Oh. 55-9 in last 5 years with a #5 team on verge of the playoffs when he left. Who leaves a #5 team that might make playoffs for another school? One that is feed up with school shooting down his request to compete for NC.

The Kelly defenders will do just about anything to justify his worth. Some say that Freeman is winning because he has Kelly’s recruits. Others are saying Freeman is winning because Notre Dame has changed their standards in just 2 years. How about this - Freeman just did more with ND in major bowls than Kelly has done in his lifetime. Call a spade a spade.

Kelly always has excuses. He did it at ND. He made them turf the field. They did. He made them add a Jumbotron. They did. He made them add cool piped-in music. They did. He made them start wearing new and cool uniforms for the recruits. They did. And he still couldn’t win a big game there. Not only could he not win one, he got absolutely annihilated in every big game they played. Almost every LSU fan on this board, bashed him then, and rightly so.

Now he’s pulling the same lame crap here. His players don’t execute. He needs different LSU uniform combos for recruits. He needs fans to chip in for NIL. Always excuses. Never delivers.

We can’t play around and keep moving the goalposts for this clown.

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ND trailed by 8 points with a minute left. That's a single possession

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You are a fricking idiot. ND got skull drug. OSU scored 31 unanswered points, then went into chew the clock mode. Theu just wanted to get home to their parade.

Theu could have scored 56 if they wanted to. Get the ND nuts out your mouth bro.

Yep when you take over losing programs, which kelly has done twice, you tend to lose the occasional upset while rebuilding. When you inherit the #5 team in the country............................. Kelly won the SEC West and beat a Saban Bama team in his first season at LSU. Everyone tends to forget that. And the same DC who helped him win it somehow screwed the pooch in 2023 and Kelly was slammed for that even though it worked in 2022. But what I've seen from kelly is he will make moves to fix problems as he did with the hiring of Baker and his 180 to the portal after the Underwood incident. He has set LSU up to be in contention in 2025 and hopefully will achieve the playoff status so many want. But ND has done nothing that kelly didn't do. Those bama and Clemson teams he faced would have destroyed this ND team and OSU took the foot off the pedal in the second half of the game. Kudos to ND to continue to play hard but they weren't in the same class as OSU and their road was much easier than kelly had back then. Indiana? really? GA without their starting QB?Not impressed. Don't get me wrong I like Freeman as a coach but no he hasn't done anything Kelly hasn't done. Except rebuild losing programs.