Enough time has passed that we’ve seen the worst of the flak Brian Kelly took over leaving Notre Dame for LSU, at least theoretically. For the past few months, we never got a detailed answer as to why Kelly departed South Bend for the Bayou State. Now, Kelly is spilling the beans in a story from The Associated Press. It might not satisfy everybody or even anybody, but at least we have something now.
Kelly lays out a few reasons for his decision and also lauds the Tigers’ apparently superior cafeteria:
“It’s been awesome because you’ve got incredible facilities, you’ve got players that want to be great. I want to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship. And I came down here because I want to be in the American League East.”
As for leaving Notre Dame, he had this to say:
“I felt like I did everything that I could at Notre Dame and they felt like they did everything they could for me. I felt like we had both got to a point where this is what they could do, right? This is what I did. And we couldn’t get past that. OK? And so here we are.”
Here’s a more general answer:
“I felt like that what I was looking for was student-athlete centered. And I was pushing for more for the student-athlete. And I wanted to see that piece. And we didn’t seem to be on the same path as to how that was going to get accomplished.”
So there it is. Is that going to make Irish fans more understanding? Probably not. Still, you have to give him credit for breaking his silence, even if he surely knows it won’t help his standing with his former employer.
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