quote:
Deboer deserves to have more optimism as he's taken a team to the playoff final in his second season at UW, made drastic improvements in 2 years at Fresno State and finished 4th, 1st, 2nd, 1st and 1st in his 5 years at a NAIA level.

I mean this is all very similar to Kelly in 2012 at Notre Dame.

Cincinnati had never even won 10 games or made a NY6 bowl prior to Kelly, he never won less than 10 games there and made two NY6 bowls.

He played for a natty in his third season at the P5 level, DeBoer did it in his second.

Both did very well at the lower levels and won national championships, Kelly just seemed to get bogged down at Notre Dame.

quote:
Kelly's resume screams 9-3 every year.

His last four seasons at Notre Dame were all less than 3 losses, he had 4 and 3 at LSU the last two seasons but also was taking over a team that was .500 for two seasons.

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Posted by DawginSC

Member since Aug 2022

4625 posts

Posted on 2/13/24 at 2:29 pm to SidewalkTiger

quote:
His last four seasons at Notre Dame were all less than 3 losses, he had 4 and 3 at LSU the last two seasons but also was taking over a team that was .500 for two seasons.

Kelly had 23 seasons (out of 32) with 3+ losses. Deboer had 2 out of 8, and those 2 were at Fresno STate in a covid year, then a 9-3 second season.

Again, to me the similarity is Urban Meyer when he went to UF.

Meyer went 8-3 and 9-3 at Bowling Green, which to me is similar to what Deboer did at Fresno State.

Then he went 10-2 and 12-0 at Utah, which is similar to what Deboer did at Washington.

I was one of those arguing that there wasn't enough to look at with Meyer and that he'd flop at UF. I was obviously wrong about that. The argument with Deboer seems very similar, but to be honest unless you're hiring Nick Saban or Kirby Smart, a resume like Deboer's is about as good as you can hope for with a new coach as it leans toward excellence as opposed to having a lot of evidence for being good but not elite.

There are some very good coaches in college football and Kelly is one of them. Mark Richt was one of them too. Tommy Tubberville was in that category too. Barry Alvarez. James Franklin. Mike Gundy. Frank Beamer. All very good coaches. None of them elite.

Deboer's resume suggests the possibility of eliteness, just like Meyer's did. Doesn't mean it's a given. He could flop. But hiring a guy like him is obviously a program striving for an elite coach rather than just accepting a proven "very good" coach.

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