Kelly Remains Cagey About Irish Speculation
- Tuesday, December 1, 2009 1:46 PM
- Written By: Garrett Sabelhaus
Brian Kelly's weekly press conference was about an hour ago, and as soon as it was opened up for questions the Notre Dame inquiries came rolling in. Kelly did not say one way or the other if he would or wouldn't take the Irish gig. He didn't say whether he had been contacted by ND and said that this week he and the entire team were focused on winning a Big East championship.
He said that the team wasn't distracted by the rumors either, which is exactly the opposite of what tight end Ben Guidugli said.
"I guess it's a distraction when we gotta answer the questions, that's when it becomes a distraction," Guidugli said.
Guidugli said he would rather the coach tell the players what is going on instead of not saying anything at all about the Notre Dame job speculation.
"He hasn't address it. I guess that doesn't help the issue when there's a lot of speculation he's not telling us anything one way or the other," Guidugli said. "I would rather him tell us what's going on, either way, just be honest about it.
"Not saying something is saying a lot I feel like. I don't think were really happy about that that he hasn't addressed it but there's nothing that we can really do."
When I asked how a coaching change may affect his future with the team Guidugli said he didn't know but didn't think he would want to leave before his final year at UC.
Senior linebacker Andre Revels felt that the team couldn't afford to let the ND job distract the team.
"If that's a concern of any player on this team, they need to go ahead and get off this team because we need to focus on Pittsburgh and get this win.
MY TAKE: If Notre Dame offers the job to Kelly, he is gone without looking back. He could have put all the rumors to rest by saying that he wasn't interested in the job. He hasn't done that, which I take as leaving the door open when the job is offered to him.
He wants that job. You can tell. By not commenting on it Kelly is also getting the upper hand on UC who may offer Kelly a big contract in the very near future to force his hand a little bit. It will be very interesting how it all plays out. Some people are saying that Notre Dame isn't even interested in Kelly. I can't see that being true but the Irish may have candidates above Kelly on their list of Weis' successor.
