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Jul 26, 2010

The Other Brian Kelley

A week after his Hall of Fame inception, Irish Creed had the chance to sit down with Brian Kelley, who was inducted as a result of his outstanding performance at linebacker while at Cal Lutheran during the late 60's and early 70's. Mr. Kelley was also a standout for the New York Giants and a member of the "Crunch Bunch." Mr. Kelley was kind enough to take some time out of his day to talk about his weekend in South Bend, Tim Brown, his college career, and a little bit about the Fighting Irish.




IC: Mr. Kelley, congratulations on your induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. How did you enjoy the weekend and the events set up for you and your fellow honorees?

BK: The weekend was fantastic the people from the HOF were great and the events they set up were fun. They did a great job keeping the families busy also.

IC: Did you know Tim Brown before the weekend? If so, what is your opinion on him as a representative of Notre Dame?

BK: I did not know Tim prior to this weekend. Tim was a class act and I don't think there could be anybody better than him to represent ND.

IC: How was Tim Brown's reception at the Hall of Fame?

BK: Playing for ND and the HOF being in South Bend he was the hit of the town but at no time did he try make himself more visible then the other HOFamers.

IC: You won a Division 2 national championship as a junior at Cal Lutheran. What do you believe led to your team's success on the field?

BK: I believe what led us to the national champs were the guys we had on our team especially our seniors. They where good leaders and were extremely dedicated to the game. They had worked together for 4 years to get to the national championship game and a few of us juniors help them achieve that goal.

IC: According to a Sports Illustrated article in April, ND's Brian Kelly 'still refers to himself as a Division II coach.' With your own background as a D-II star, how do you think Kelly's 13 years in Division II will serve him in his new role?

BK: It doesn't matter what level you are coaching at you gain valuable experience. I think one thing that will help him is being able to adjust to situations quicker on the field. When you coach at a small college this is something you do quite a bit because you don't have the personnel sitting on the bench as you do at a major college.

IC: Do you have any knowledge of the ND team? If so, what does that other Brian Kelly need to do to get back on the National Championship radar?

BK: I don't have a lot of knowledge of the ND team but like any other major college you have to be able to recruit good players. Then you have to have those players believe in you and your system. Coach Kelly has that ability because he has done it his whole coaching career.

IC: Do you have any predictions for break out players or guys to keep our eyes on in the future?

BK: I really don't know the players at ND but you should be hoping the new QB has a break out year.




I want to thank Brian Kelley again for sitting down with Irish Creed to talk about his Hall of Fame experience. We encourage all of our readers to check back for more exclusive interviews throughout the season. Go Irish!

4 comments:

  1. I dont understand why FightingIrish3131 did this interview. Is it supposed to be a joke because he has almost the same name as our coach? It didnt seem like he has any connection to ND at all and couldnt rly answer your questions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a bizarre comment, why would anyone think the interview is a joke? (maybe the comment was meant to be a joke, but isn't funny?)
    Brian Kelley was just in South Bend to receive a prestigious honor upon being inducted into the College Football HOF. He is one of the classiest individuals you could meet, and raved about his experience in SB, the HOF and his family's visit and tour of Notre Dame (maybe more could have been stated about that in the interview). There are several pertinent connections to ND - his comments about the classiness of Tim Brown (maybe you didn't know Tim was associated with ND?) and also his comments regarding the ability of Coach Kelly to adapt and adjust to situations on the field (something notoriously lacking at ND for decades) and the ability to recruit - these are the key questions most of us have been asking as we pontificate if this was a good hire and BK will turn the program around. Many of us are waiting for the proof to be in the pudding by seeing his results, rather than speculating, but I thought it was great to hear a non-interested party's view on the situation.
    It's also pretty cool to see that these guys are able to get such interviews...and of course, there is the 'funny' aspect of Brian Kelley being confused with our Brian Kelly and wished 'good luck on the season' during his trip.
    A constructive comment might have been to tell the writer to expand more on the interview and experience, rather than a bizarre random anonymous snipe.
    It's pretty easy to put your name, or posting name, when add your comment...just select 'Name/URL' when choosing a profile to post and type it in and it shows up that way, no need to register.
    Keep up the good work boys, looking forward to more exclusives!

    ReplyDelete
  3. No need to get heated breffni, I was looking for an explanation from the original poster, he should be able to give his own explanations ya? Maybe i didnt convey my confusion well enough, it wasnt an attack i was just wondering why he chose to interview this particular person about the event when he didnt seem to have any special relationship to ND. I clearly wasnt questioning the class of anyone involved, just simply curious. I am big fan of the blog and I think its great the access they have especially with the leperchan on their staff. Keep up the good work indeed, and I would love to see more explanation about the purpose of the interview.

    Go ND!

    -Earl from Newport Coast, CA

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ya diggity it be the shit mayne All this confusing name changing switcharoos. Irish for life. 2012 CHAMPS!

    ReplyDelete

2012 Notre Dame Football Schedule

2012 Notre Dame Football Schedule
Overall
12-1
Home
6-0
Away
4-0
Neutral
2-1
DateOpponent / EventLocationTime / Result
09/01/12vs. Navy Dublin, IrelandW, 50-10
09/08/12vs. PurdontNotre Dame, Ind.W, 20-17
09/15/12at SpartyEast Lansing, Mich.W, 20-3
09/22/12vs. SkunkbearsNotre Dame, Ind.W, 13-6
Shamrock Series
10/06/12vs. Da UChicago, Ill.W, 41-3
10/13/12vs. TreesNotre Dame, Ind.W, 20-13 (OT)
10/20/12vs. BYU Notre Dame, Ind.W, 17-14
10/27/12at Oklahoma Norman, Okla.W, 30-13
11/03/12vs. Pittsburgh Notre Dame, Ind.W, 29-26 (3OT)
11/10/12at Backup College Chestnut Hill, Mass.W, 21-6
11/17/12vs. Fake Worest Notre Dame, Ind.W, 38-0
11/24/12at U$C Los Angeles, Calif.W, 22-13
1/7/13vs. AlabamaBCS CHAMPIONSHIP
(Miami, Florida)
L, :(