Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly taunted by USC and growing critics

After USC hammering, Monday morning quarterbacks abound

DARA KELLY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 7:45 AM

Updated Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 9:50 AM

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Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly knows that success has many friends, but losing - not so much.

Notre Dame's routing by USC has already been pinned to Kelly's chest.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley put it like this: 'It seemed from our sideline and our perspective that they did give up,' he told ESPNLA. And, rubbing it in, linebacker Chris Galippo added 'That’s what Notre Dame football’s about.'

Ouch. Regardless of whether Notre Dame’s players gave up, critics are certainly blaming Kelly. And what's worse, they're suggesting he gave up on his own team.

Take Fox Sport's columnist Greg Couch, for example. In a hard hitting article this week he wrote that the Fighting Irish now seem spooked by their grand past.

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20,000 Notre Dame fans set for Dublin in September 2012 ---Incredible reaction from Fighting Irish fans to Navy game in Ireland

Why do Brian Kelly's Notre Dame quarterbacks screw up so much? ---Latest loss against USC down to quarterback errors

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'It has such great tradition, and everyone keeps waiting for that one moment to get it all back,' Couch wrote. 'But Notre Dame keeps losing that moment. It’s hard to remember the last time the Irish won a big game.'

Couch also has no doubt where the blame lies:

'Kelly built up this moment as a way to forget all other lost moments.

He put the team in super bright helmets with extra gold. They looked ridiculous, like football players with Christmas lights on their heads. They blared Ozzy Osbourne music over the PA at every chance to get the crowd going. They handed out towels for fans to wave.

'Kelly was just so sure of himself, so sure that this moment would be his, with an extra week to prepare for a night game with a huge TV audience and a ton of top recruits in the stands against a rival that’s on probation. So he ended up doubling and tripling the pressure of the moment to get the biggest payback. And when it wasn’t going right, the defeat was double and triple. Kelly gave in. And maybe the players did, too.'

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JosephOCasey | Oct 27, 2011, 08:07 PM EDT

Falconflash...the problem isn't that Kelly hasn't worked a miracle yet, it's that he continually shows his ineptitude. He has over 20 years of head coaching experience and it is evident that he is in over his head. Clearly his focus is on things that don't win football games..like shiny helmets, piped in crappy music, lusting for Jumbotrons and field turf. He makes tactical mistake after tactical mistake. His incompetency has nothing to do with the talent level and everything to do with the fact that he is a below average football coach sitting in the brightest spotlight in college football. Brian Kelly continually throws his players under the bus and has lost the team. ND won't fire him so get ready for 3 more full seasons of crappy teams with mediocre records..... Now for James Martin. ND rightly chose not to join that crapfest that is the B1G. They would be submitting to being overrun by the bureaucratic dopes from Michigan and Ohio State who dominate that conference. Joining the B1G might be in the best interest of the conference, but it is not in ND's best interest. In fact, they would be better off joining any other conference..or none at all.

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JamesMartin | Oct 26, 2011, 11:35 AM EDT

Why does IC even report on nd? They are chickensh!ts for not joining the B1G. They are no more Irish than any other school, except for the nickiname. What was their nickname before? Hear it was the Ramblers or better yet the Blunders (as in: "shake down the Blunders from the sky). Their BCS #8 president is a total joke. Nuff said.

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Murph46 | Oct 26, 2011, 09:41 AM EDT

Admit-You Quit The worst thing you can say about a team has been said.ND is mediocre ,but even I didn't think they were quitters until USC.Terrible.

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