Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly Named Voice of Reason

CBS Sports Dennis Dodd has high praise after Brian Kelly met with the media yesterday.

The Notre Dame football leader, Brian Kelly, met with the media yesterday via Zoom, touched on a variety of topics, but something caught the eye of CBS Sports Dennis Dodd. After Kelly finished, Dodd’s headline read like this: Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly emerges as voice of reason in sea of tone-deaf college football coaches.

What caught Dodd’s attention was the way Kelly handled himself when asked to speak to the community regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Kelly seemed very statesmanlike when he said “We have not won yet. We’re just getting to halftime. We have a second half to play here. Really good job in the first couple of quarters, but we’re just getting into the locker room. Let’s look toward having a better second half. If we have a better second half, we’re going to win the game.”

This is certainly high praise for Kelly as Dodd explains that while “Updating the status of the Fighting Irish as a whole, Kelly seemed to warm to the topic of inspiration.” This is a clear contrast from what other coaches have recently said, such as Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy. Gundy wants football to start up by May 1st, citing an influx of money to go through the Sooner state. It was a bad look for the Cowboys.

Kelly has shown that he has a firm grasp on the situation, as this is the new norm and he has accepted it and adapted to it as well. Praise like this is fantastic for the Irish’s head coach, after Gundy makes a fool of himself, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney’s reports of taking vacations, and Mississippi State’s Mike Leach posting a extremely racial photo on his Twitter feed that has since been deleted and at least one player will transfer due to it.

Dodd’s headline was spot on, as Kelly has handled this situation extremely well, making positive headlines instead of negative ones. This can only help the university and it’s easy to say Notre Dame faithful are extremely proud of their head coach.