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Don't blame Notre Dame's Brian Kelly for Bearcats blowout in Sugar Bowl

SEAN O'SHEA,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Saturday, January 2, 2010, 10:12 AM

Updated Saturday, January 2, 2010, 8:15 PM

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Cincinnati wouldn't have lost as badly if Brian Kelly had been there.

The Bearcats' blowout in the Sugar Bowl just proves how much they missed Brian Kelly.

There is no way on earth that Kelly on the sidelines loses this game 51-24. His team had faced incredible adversity all season and were one Texas second away from playing for the BCS title. This was not the same team.

Without Kelly however, you could see the Bearcats lacked direction confidence and, most of all, any defensive plan.

Tim Tebow killed them all night but I don't believe that would have happened if Kelly was in charge. He would surely have found a way to stop the Tebow Tsunami while it was happening.

Would Cincinnati have won the game? Probably not, but no way would it have been that kind of blowout.

Florida were clearly up for this to show just how much they respected Urban Meyer. Cincinnati, on the other hand, had been through a dizzying round of coaching changes that had clearly left the team demoralized. Not having Kelly was an incredible setback, it turned out.

Blame the college game which forces coaches to pick new jobs while the season is ongoing because of recruiting needs. Don't blame Brian Kelly.

Nster.com

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JosephOCasey | Jan 03, 2010, 01:15 AM EST

Cincy's defense sucked with Kelly there too. I suppose that Cincy may have scored a bit more with Kelly there, but not enough to make a difference. Cincy was overrated and all that was proven is that talent matters in big time college football. The sad thing is that Diaco will be ND's next defensive coordinator. Now THAT is frightening.

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roadhawk | Jan 02, 2010, 04:41 PM EST

Are you kidding? Cincinnatti stunk on D the whole year. Kelly would have made no difference at all against Florida. Notre Dame got a better PR version of Weiss. Notre Dame needed somebody who could run a ball-controll offense to protect the D, instead you got a no-huddle spread offense guy. You wanted Kelly, you got him. The good & the bad.

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bearcatbill | Jan 02, 2010, 02:17 PM EST

Cincy might have scored a couple more point if he were still there, but to think he would have had any more of a defensive game plan is just plain stupid. He hasn't organized much of one all season, much less in the last half of the year. Why would anyone expect that would change for the Sugar Bowl? He's left that to Diaco, and we see where that has left them. Now you get to experience their wonderful "defensive plan" next year.

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