Daily briefing: On Brian Kelly, NIL mistakes and big men on campus at Stanford

by:Ivan Maisel•09/24/21•

Ivan_Maisel

Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:

Brian Kelly can handle pressure

It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of what Brian Kelly will accomplish by winning his 106 game at Notre Dame to surpass Knute Rockne as the school’s career wins leader. It speaks to Kelly’s prowess as a coach, sure. But for all the success that Notre Dame has had in the 90 years since Rockne died in a plane crash, it hasn’t had a coach who could withstand the pressure in South Bend long enough to win 106 games. That speaks to the other record Kelly is approaching. Rockne coached 13 seasons in South Bend. Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz both coached 11 seasons and wanted out. Kelly is in his 12^th year and going strong.

NIL marketing mistakes

Now that we’ve had all the initial excitement about NIL, it’s worth noting that the marketers making the deals made the same miscalculations the rest of us made, only the marketers put money on their predictions. You think maybe Dr Pepper might want a quarterback for its “Fansville” ad who is ranked higher than 90^th in ESPN’s QBR rating? That’s where Clemson’s D.J. Uiagalelei sits after three games, one spot behind Ohio’s Kurtis Rourke and seven places behind Miami’s D’Eriq King, who signed three deals in the first 24 hours of the NIL era. Yeah, I know there’s three-quarters of the season left. But where college football is concerned, you always can count on some ready-fire-aim.

The Stanford trees

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this in college football: Seven starters on Stanford’s offense, including quarterback Tanner McKee, stand at least 6-foot-4. The Cardinal men’s basketball team didn’t start five guys who were 6-4 in most of its games last season, and kenpom.com listed Stanford as the eighth-tallest team in Division I. The tall offensive starters include four offensive linemen, tight end Ben Yurosek (or Tucker Fisk), wide receiver Brycen Tremaine and the 6-6 McKee, who has led Stanford to more than 40 points in each of his two starts. Fear the Trees?