It seemed as if Notre Dame was going to be in an odd position when Brian Kelly left to take over LSU, but Marcus Freeman has since steadied the program while the former head coach is now without a coaching job.
Kelly was fired from the Tigers during last season, and he currently does not have anything lined up at the moment. With all that free time on his hands, he recently sat down with The Athletics Pete Sampson for an interview (subscription required), and he had some very interesting things to say about his time in South Bend and the direction of the program.
After Kelly returned to Notre Dame in March for Lou Holtz’s funeral, it seems like he still wonders if he made the right choice. He told Sampson that “I just want to show that I have 100 percent faith and confidence in what they’re going and how they’re doing it, not that they need me to validate in any way. But I want our fans to know, the Notre Dame fans, that I’m 100 percent of what they’re doing and how they are doing it on a day-to-day basis.”
Kelly want to make a visit to the program he once let, as he did same some pretty flattering things about Freeman. It will be up to the current head coach to see if that happens, but I don’t think fans will take it the right way. There is still plenty of animosity towards him for the way he left, bashing the program as Kelly didn’t believe that Notre Dame has what it takes to win a championship.
Freeman never had those thoughts, as he’s totally transformed the program over the last four-plus years. It will be interesting to see if Kelly does make it back to South Bend this fall, and hopefully for his sake, it’s a closed practice without much fanfare.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Brian Kelly: ‘I’m 100 percent supportive’ of Notre Dame football
Reporting by Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire / Fighting Irish Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire | USA TODAY Network
