Those expecting an Irish Renaissance under Brian Kelly may find out they are going to be disappointed.

And it has nothing to do with how well he can coach.

All of the conjecture, debating, and theorizing on what the future holds for college football’s most storied program can be boiled down to one matter.

Logistics.

As in, 91 out of the top 150 players (according to ESPN) reside in SEC country.

Only 11 of the top 150 are in the Midwest (Notre Dame’s home).

That is about as disparate as two stories can be. That also shows why the last 4 BCS champions are SEC teams. When it comes to elite prospects picking schools, Dorothy had it right, “There’s no place like home“.

Brian Kelly can coach like Knute Rockne, work harder than James Brown (the hardest working man in show business, for those of you that don’t know), and sell his program like Tony Robbins, and it still might not do the job.

In college football, the players decide who wins.

I’m not so sure Notre Dame can get enough of ‘em.

Paul Hornung, ND’ original “golden boy”, is the namesake for college football’s newest honor: “most versatile player”. What does than mean? Well, to give you a proper picture, the Paul Hornung Award would have gone to either C.J. Spiller, or ND’s own Golden Tate if it were awarded this year (a player that can help their team the most in a large variety of ways).

Hornung is one of college football’s all-time greats (think the original Rocket Ismail, plus he could throw, and play defense), the only player special enough to win the Heisman on a losing team, so his name belongs right up there with the Biletnikoffs and Nagurskis.

However, he might have even more fame for the statement “ND must lower admissions to get the black athlete and win”. Technically, he may be right on lowering admissions, he just made the mistake of using the qualifying term “black”. (That’s what we call racial profiling.)

So, occasionally in his honor, the Blarney will bring you Hornung’s Words of Wisdom, or technically true statements that are worded wrong, and perhaps show some prejudice or some kind of political incorrectness.

Paul Hornung’s Words of Wisdom For 8-26-10:

“You know why Brian Kelly lost weight? Because, being fat and unhealthy cuts careers short. And I mean any career, from football coach to being a Hooter’s waitress.”

Brian Kelly hasn’t even coached his first game at Notre Dame yet, but I am already dangerously close to developing a serious man-crush on him (though he’s not on a Michael Floyd level). I already talked about the “drinking the Kool-Aid” trap, and how I’m falling into it, but here’s a little further look into why that is so.

5 Things I Already Love About Brian Kelly

1.) He doesn’t refer to his quarterback as a “game manager”. Coaches that talk like that remind me of someone who plays scared. If I could adapt a Sean Connery line to this thought, it would be, “losers always wine about managing the game, winners throw the ball all over, and go home and f— the prom queen”. I understand some quarterbacks aren’t world-beaters (or they are young), and I understand the power of a running game and defense, but in this day and age, you make plays in the passing game if you want to win (He likes to wait three years, but even Tressel unleashed Troy Smith, and appears ready to do the same with Terrelle Pryor). Kelly wants his quarterback to make plays.

2.) He likes fast. (Not everybody does. Indiana Jones, for instance, didn’t like his women that way.) Kelly want his offense to be so fast-paced that he and Jack Swarbrick are working with NBC to reach an agreement on lowering the ridiculous amount of t.v. timeouts the network is so fond of. Kelly doesn’t want his momentum to be slowed because NBC goes to commercial break if the quarterback dares to scratch his ass before taking the snap.

3.) He’s not afraid to upset the status quo. How many names have we heard that could get significant playing time that we never saw coming? Cierre Wood. Chris Watt. Tyler Eifert. Steve Filer. Kerry Neal. Tate Nichols. That, plus about eight other freshman. Conversely, mainstays like Brian Smith, Chris Stewart, and Armando Allen are being serious threatened. Oh, you might have heard the he also called out the guy who will be Notre Dame’s best receiver ever.

4.) He wants to succeed at Notre Dame so bad, he hired a personal trainer, and put down the cheeseburgers, so he can “coach at Notre Dame for the rest of his career without having a heart attack.”

5.) I’ve said it a hundred times, he took Cincinnati to #3, and they have to tailgate in parking garages, people!