Kelly Green at Notre Dame

Coach Brian Kelly talks to Niall O'Dowd about coaching, his plans for Notre Dame and his Irish heritage.

Where did that come from?
    I think it was being in the back yard playing basketball with my brother, or going out in the street playing stickball. I think just competing. Today, everything is all planned for kids. When I played, it was just – let’s go play. And you played because you loved to play. You didn’t play for any other reason. Everything is so planned now. Sometimes, I think today, we’ve got kids just playing to play.
    So I had that inside, that I was passionate about playing and loved the game and felt like if you’re passionate about something you should be able to teach it.  Who were your football heroes?
I loved watching Joe Montana when I was an Irish fan growing up. I’ve never been enamored with just one person. The great ones have always caught my attention.

So when you’re coaching Notre Dame obviously it is an incredible responsibility. It is like no other job, is it?
    Well, I think if I thought about that every day I’d jump out the window. So I try to think about the process. Like I said earlier when we began the conversation about winning and losing. Obviously winning is much better than losing, but it’s a process. I focus more on the process of developing a program than on all the things that could make this overwhelming. That’s how I operate on a day-to-day basis. I’m confident in the plan and that the people that I have around me will accomplish those goals, and sometimes those goals take some time to reach.
 
Anything surprise you so far?
    I think anytime you take over a new business or a new organization you go in there and you try to find out where the air’s coming out of the tires, so to speak. We’ve got a good idea of where it was and we’ve been able to address that. I was pretty well-schooled on the fact that there was going to be a lot outside of the game itself – whether it be the media or alumni or development, whether it be Thursday night shows, Friday luncheons, Saturday walk to the basilica, there’s so many things. I was prepared for that.
    I think the surprising thing, more than anything else, was the players and some of the things that they were missing just in the game itself, and so that was a bit of a surprise. But nothing surprises me too much. That’s the Irish in me. I’ve always been this way.

What did your wife say when you came home and said ‘I’m going to Notre Dame?’
    She did give me a blank look, like, ‘are you sure?’ My daughter, Grace Kelly, said, “Dad, I know it’s your dream job, but I’m crying now because I’m sad for me, because I’m going to miss my friends. I’m happy for you, I’m just sad because I’m moving again for the fourth time in six years.”
    I think that’s how the whole family felt. Now that they’re here and they’re settled and they’re around Notre Dame and I can share the things that Notre Dame has with them, it makes it all worthwhile.

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