Notre Dame players understandably feel burned after Brian Kelly abruptly left the program in the middle of a national championship run, and the coach had to have felt that when he addressed the team for the last time on Tuesday.
A Notre Dame player leaked a video that shows Kelly delivering his farewell speech to his former players. The clip begins with Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick saying a few words and then turning things over to Kelly, who thanked the team and briefly addressed that the players found out about his departure via social media. The speech lasted less than four minutes in total.
You can listen to the speech, which is in two parts, below:
“I know we’ve been through this together. I’ve recruited virtually everybody in this room,” Kelly said. “I wanted to be able to tell you face-to-face why we’re at where we’re at. … Many times people look for a reason to blame or if there was a reason for something — 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. There comes a time when you look in your life for another opportunity. I felt like it was time in my life for another challenge. I saw that opportunity in a very short window and felt it was best for me and my family to pursue a new challenge.”
There seemed to be a lot of tension in the room, which was to be expected. No players said anything or clapped for Kelly after he was done speaking.
Kelly previously apologized to his players for the way they found out about him taking the LSU job. He did so via a text message.
There’s rarely ever a graceful way for a coach to leave one top program for another. Kelly’s coaching staff seemingly felt left in the dark like his players. Kelly tried to explain on Wednesday how quickly the LSU deal came together.
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