Guest Post: Introducing NDSaintsHornets

Hello Family, Friends, and Fans of ND and its former Leprechaun,

As a new contributing writer for Irish Creed, I figured I should introduce myself. I graduated from Our Lady’s University in May along with the aforementioned Leprechaun and I will be attending law school at Vanderbilt beginning in the fall. Hopefully, my distance from ND (literally) will allow me to write with a different perspective about the state of our football program than my colleagues. I’m originally from Baton Rouge and I’m a massive sports junkie. I’ve been asked to write about recruiting among other things but to be honest I’m pretty much gonna write about whatever interests me from one week to the next (I’ll send it to our fearless Irish leader and if he likes it you get to read it). I’m hoping to be the site’s game picking source with weekly calls against the spread for major college games, but hopefully I can give you a sense of my football perspective with a quick discussion of recruiting and coaching at ND.

For Kelly’s first class after ND’s previous regime went 16-21 over the past three years, he’s recruiting very well. However, Weis proved that recruiting on a major scale was possible at ND in his tenure, but a lack of player development led to his downfall. Players often left the ND program under Weis just as raw as when they walked in. This was particularly evident along the offensive line, and at a variety of positions on defense. While Coach Kelly clearly recognized this problem in his first press conference where he emphasized that player development would play a major role under his regime, he still has to show that this is in fact the case. As someone who was convinced, like many other ND fans, that Charlie Weis was the answer, I am reticent to put all of my faith in our new leader. I’m trying to approach our new regime like a girl who’s recently gone through a bad breakup. I’m a little guarded and I don’t want to give it up on the first date. Hopefully, this time it’s different and I won’t fall for the same BS again. Like I said before, I am going to try to be objective and check my good friend’s enthusiasm. At the same time, my history as a fan of other teams has led me to believe that the right coach/architect can change any team’s fortune.

I grew up a fan of LSU sports and the New Orleans Saints. On both the professional and collegiate levels I have seen a team that was generally considered to be crappy turn itself around with the right coaching hire. I saw Nick Saban take a team that was 3-8 before he got there and lead them to an SEC championship in 2 years and a BCS championship in 4. Sean Payton took over my New Orleans Saints in 2006 and along with Drew Brees lead them to a NFC championship game in his first year and a Super Bowl victory in his fourth. The right coach changes everything, particularly in college football. If Brian Kelly is that coach, we will know. So here’s to hoping that Brian Kelly is that man, and that I will occasionally write something worth reading.

Go Irish,

NDSaintsHornets