Brady Quinn rips Brian Kelly for ‘classless’ move to LSU
Current Fox College Football Analyst Brady Quinn had some strong words for Brian Kelly jumping to the LSU Tigers.
Quinn is a former quarterback for Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but he was gone to the NFL by the time that Brian Kelly arrived in South Bend. When discussing the move by Kelly to the SEC, the Fox Analyst didn’t mince words on how he felt.
“This was about money,” Quinn, currently an analyst for FOX Sports, said on 2 Pros and Cup of Joe. “This was about ego, him looking at LSU and saying: ‘I’ve played against them. I know what they can recruit. I know the difference in restrictions that you have, the hurdles you have to jump over at Notre Dame versus LSU to recruit and I want to try and go win a National Championship.’ And he might feel like he has a better chance there.
“But the irony of it is his team could literally be playing for one this year and really the next two years. They have two Top 5 recruiting classes right now. So he’s leaving all of that. I think the way he did it was more about his ego and how he feels he was treated at times at Notre Dame.” – Brady Quinn via USA TODAY Sports
It isn’t shocking to hear a former Fighting Irish player unhappy with the move by Kelly. It isn’t uncalled for either. It just feels like the college football world we live in. Teams and coaching candidates have to make a decision that they feel is best for them. Whether that be financially motivated, or a coach like Brian Kelly that believes his best chance to win a championship is in the SEC.
It is no secret that the admission and academic standards are much higher than that of LSU. He can recruit players to the Tigers that wouldn’t be eligible to play at Notre Dame. At age 60, perhaps jumping on a plane every time he wants to recruit was another reason. At LSU, the school pretty much recruits itself in the state of Louisiana. He can also just hop in the car if he wants to recruit, no need to get on a play every time.
“At the end of the day, you don’t leave the way he did, literally out on the road recruiting, leaving a recruit’s house after this news breaks and having other coaches out there who are on the road recruiting,” Quinn continued. “You don’t leave in a classless way like that, after becoming the all-time winningest coach, unless there’s more to it and you want to try to spurn, or you want to try and do this in a conniving way.”
With so much emphasis on the early signing period, I truly believe this is why we are seeing coaches leave before the season is even over. More than half of recruiting classes are signing in mid-December rather than national signing day in February.
Perhaps there need to be some changes to prevent this from happening. Whether that is putting rules in place that prevent a coach from interviewing before the season is over, or removing the early signing period. Until something like that happens, this is just a part of the college football world.
Whether you like it or not.
