In a move that likely surprises nobody, Brian Kelly has spurned the University of Cincinnati for Notre Dame. Kelly is the fourth Big East football coach to leave the league in the past five years for a "higher profile" position (Dantonio UC-Mich. State, Petrino UL - Atlanta Falcons/Arkansas, Rich Rodriguez  WV-Michigan).

I think I speak for everyone when I say that I fully expect Brian Kelly to not succeed at Notre Dame. The expectations are too high, the schedule is too hard and this whole trend of hiring the "hot" Big East football coach has never panned out. Dantanio is doing mediocre at Michigan State. Rodriguez is blowing it at Michigan. Petrino left the NFL after one season to go coach Arkansas, a.k.a. Alabama, LSU and Florida's little bitch.  I'm not sure why every major football opening thinks think hiring the sexy Big East football coach is the solution to their problems.

Plus, Kelly is leaving his program before it plays in its BCS game against Florida. I would think that he at least owes it to his undefeated, BCS-conference team to put his full energies into beating Florida and not commit to go coach another team. Yup, Kelly is definitely not going to succeed at Notre Dame (barring the first year of success that always accompanies a new Notre Dame football coach and slowly diminishes every year).

Courier Journal reported this morning that UL received a commitment from PG Russell Smith of Connecticut. Smith is a three star recruit (yeah?) and at some point, somebody has compared Smith to Dejuan Wheat, which is awesome if true.

I guess this is good? I mean, we have to bring in some players for the 2010 class. I would assume the plan is for Smith to be the LONG term point guard for that time period after Siva graduates and Marquis Teague (fingers crossed) comes here and leaves early.

Tobias Harris signs his letter on Wednesday and announces the decision on Thursday. He's supposedly a Syracuse lean, but Fab Melo was supposedly a UL lean before he signed with 'Cuse, so karma would dictate that Harris has to go to Louisville. I would say that Harris is a must get, unless of course he signs to go elsewhere, in which case we didn't need him in the first place.

Mike's newest post brought back memories of Stefan Lefors (yeah, I voted for the Boise State game over the UK victory, so what?)

I absolutely loved watching Lefors play. He didn't have a great arm, but he played smart and he was pretty damn fast (rememer that run he broke against Cincy?).

However, I believe that if Stefan Lefors played for Steve Kragthorpe, it would look similar to how Will Stein is playing. Granted Lefors was a few inches taller than Stein and may have been faster, but they have similar arm strength and are both shorter than a prototype D-1 quarterback.

I guess what this is getting at is that Steve Kragthorpe is absolutley clueless about to how to maxmize the talent in the program. I would love to see Petrino take advantage of Chicester's size, Doug Beaumont's hands, Darius Ashley's toughness, Burke's arm/accuracy, Vic's shiftiness, Froman's mobility, Trent Guy's speed, Bilal Powell's likeness to Kolby Smith, Zach Stoudt's potential, Scott Long's overall ability and Tronzo's manliness.

I really don't think we are that far behind talent wise on offense. Sadly, most of these players are not being utilized to their full potential. I think the quickest way to turn around the program with the emminent new hire is to bring in someone offensive minded becaust that's where a change of scheme will produce the quickest results. Rebuilding the defense is going to take longer because we need to build depth and improve the speed of our secondary.

But back to the topic of this post, I miss you Stefan...like the deserts miss the rain...

From ESPN:

This is a sad story. He played a hell of a game against us. It's sad that things turned out like this. Thoughts and prayers towards UConn, this is the type of stuff you never want to see happen to anybody anywhere.

Continue reading this post »