There are ways for a person to leave a job with respect, class, and dignity and then there is Brian Kelly. He did it previously at Central Michigan when he left for the Cincinnati job. Then he did it again when he left Cincinnati for Notre Dame.
Although the news was shocking, the act and how he went about it certainly shouldn’t be, considering who you’re dealing with. It’s probably fitting that Kelly took the LSU job because after all, tigers don’t change their stripes.
Former Notre Dame star quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Brady Quinn was none too pleased with the way Kelly exited.
“This was about money. This was about ego. Him looking at LSU and saying, ‘I’ve played against them. I know the hurdles you have to jump over at Notre Dame vs. LSU to recruit and I want to try and go win a National Championship.’ And he might feel like he has a better chance there, but the irony of it is his team could literally be playing for one this year and really the next two years. And I think the way he did it was more about his ego and how he feels he was treated at times at Notre Dame…
At the end of the day, you don’t leave the way he did, leaving a recruits house after this news breaks, and having other coaches out there who are on the road recruiting; you don’t leave in a classless way like that, after becoming the all-time winningest coach, unless there’s more to it and you want to try to spurn, or try and do this in a conniving way.”
– Brady Quinn on 2 Pros and Cup of Joe
I did a couple interviews Tuesday in regards to Kelly and the question about his exit came up. He certainly doesn’t look good in this and a lot of people again feel burned. That will happen when someone takes a job, something he’s certainly allowed to do, but on his third time leaving a head coaching job I would have expected it to be handled perhaps be a little more smoothly.
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