Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Five Good Questions with Bill Koch about Brian Kelly and the Michigan job



Today's Five Good Questions is with Cincinnati Enquirer college football beat writer Bill Koch.....Bill covers the Cincinnati Bearcats.....and there is talk around college football that current Bearcat head football coach Brian Kelly may be a darkhorse for the Michigan job.....here is what Bill thinks about that situation.....


Q1. First off, what is the talk around the Cincinnati football program about Brian Kelly being a candidate for the head coaching job at Michigan?
A. There's not that much talk around UC about Kelly leaving for Michigan. He has done his best to downplay such talk and I don't think there are a lot of people here who at this point are taking it that seriously.

Q2. What type of person is Kelly? Is he personable and able to "talk the talk" among alumni and big-time donors?
A. Kelly has been a great salesman for the UC program, probably the best they've ever had. He's willing to do whatever it takes to get the message out and he has a personality that people seem to gravitate to.

Q3. Everyone knows that Kelly is an offensive-minded type of coach. Is he a "player's coach?" Is he a disciplinarian? Describe him a bit.
A. The players love him because he's so demanding on the field and they like the results they've gotten from doing things his way. They have a lot of confidence that if they do what he tells them to do, they will win.

Q4. What are his strengths and weaknesses as a head coach?
A. Because he's been a head coach for so long he's very confident in how he does his job. That confidence rubs off on his players and staff. I don't know of any obvious weaknesses that I've seen.

Q5. Overall, do you think he has the ability to be a head coach at Michigan or another big-time football program? And why or why not?
A. He's the kind of coach who would succeed where ever he coached for many of the reasons I listed above. He's known as an offensive coach, but he doesn't ignore defense and special teams. He's great with the media and the fan base. I don't know how good he is as a recruiter yet because he's had only one class and that was done in a hurry after he got the job here last December.

I want to thank Bill for his time, it is much appreciated....

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