Earlier this week, Brian Kelly decided to leave Notre Dame for LSU. News about the impending move didn’t exactly happen as he would have liked, though.
The news about Kelly’s departure leaked on social media late Monday night, before he had a chance to tell his players. In an effort to make things better, Kelly held one final meeting with his players to clear the air.
It didn’t take long for video of Kelly’s final meeting with his players to leak. Earlier Wednesday morning, Barstool’s Chief – aka Ryan Brandell – shared the leaked video to social media.
Those videos can be seen here.
Here’s the full transcription of the video:
“Good morning guys, thanks for getting up here in short order, short notice. As you know I sent out a text last night trying to give you as much notice as possible given the circumstances that we all know that happened due to social media.”
“I know we’ve been through this together. I recruited virtually everybody in this room. And I want to be able to tell you face-to-face why we’re at where we’re at. And that is, very simply that um, the past 12 years have been the most incredible 12 years of my life for me and my family being here at Notre Dame. Magical in what we’ve been able to build with the most incredible student athletes – the ones that I’m looking at right now.
“And so, people are always looking for a reason or something to blame, but there was nothing here but first-class in everything that Notre Dame has done for me and my family. I saw my time here as a blessing working with incredible men on a day-to-day basis. But there comes a time where you look in your life for another opportunity, and I felt it was the time in my life for another challenge.
“And I saw that opportunity in a very short window and felt that it was best for me and my family to pursue a challenge. And so there’s no one to blame, there’s nobody that’s at fault, nobody did anything wrong. You guys have been the backbone of this program with what you’ve accomplished and you’ll continue to do that. I think you’re one of the four best teams in the country. Jack is going to get somebody that will continue to lead this program in incredible fashion. I don’t know what it holds for us moving forward, but I hope to heck it means you’re playing for the national championship because you absolutely deserve it.
“So from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone one of you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you directly because you don’t get that chance very often, and to thank you for allowing me to pursue what I love to do, and that’s developing 18–21 year olds. And you will continue to achieve the highest level and have great success, no matter what moves forward for you.
“So again, thank you, I love each and every one of you, and for me more than anything else, it’s a sad day but one where I know that each one of you are going to do great things and you’ve got more to accomplish. So, I wish everybody here the very best and thank you for the opportunity you’ve given me and my family. Thank you guys, appreciate it.”
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The videos totaled just under four minutes.
Notre Dame is now on the hunt for a new head coach. Defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman is reportedly a candidate for the job. As is Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell.
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