[autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] is one of the most experienced coaches in the country.
His coaching career spans 40 seasons with head coaching jobs at five different stops since 1991. But in that entire time, Kelly has never made a stop in the NFL at any level.
He shed some light on the reason behind that during his Thursday press conference, explaining that the roster management model inn the professional ranks doesn’t particularly appeal to him.
“In my time as a collegiate head coach I got a chance to really shape my roster, handle the scholarships, determine all the complexions of what your program looks like. And so with all of those things, the buck stopped with me,” Kelly said, per On3. “When I got a chance to look at the NFL, I saw a de-centralized model. There was a director of personnel. There was a GM. And so a lot of those buckets were not in my control.
“And I’m not a control freak, by any means, but I would not have control of some of the things I thought were very essential in building a successful program. And I think that’s when I saw that that wasn’t what I was looking for.”
Kelly, 61, explains that he has now realized his main passion behind coaching is the player development process, which is more significant at the college level.
“My real ‘Why?’ was that I love player development. That’s why I got in it and watching players develop and grow, you don’t get that same opportunity in the NFL as you do in college,” Kelly said.
Kelly has been the subject of NFL speculation in the past, but it seems that at this point in his career, he’s content to stay in college, where he’s still searching for his first national title at the Division I level.
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