The End of an Era
This last week has been a media circus in Mount Pleasant. I have never seen so many media outlets in this city to cover something since..well we all know what happened two years ago. This week we saw CMU at the top and at rock bottom emotionally. Last Monday we all thought the end was close for the Brian Kelly era, but low and behold ESPN was wrong in its reporting and Kelly was going to stay in Mount Pleasant. " I love Mount Pleasant, and its such a great fit for our family," Kelly told the media Monday. So CMU was coming out of the trenches and thinking their fearless leader was going to stay another year and close out the end of his contract or maybe an extension. Dave Heeke and President Michael Rao were in the works to make Kelly the highest paid coach in the Mid-American Conference working on a package so Kelly would sign on the dotted line and we would have him for who knows how long.
So riding an emotional high CMU enters the Mid-American Conference championship game against East Division foe the Bobcats of Ohio University, with a trip to the Motor City bowl on the line. Kelly and his Chippewas came out firing on all cylinders hitting the Bobcats with a shellacking they surely won't forget. Freshman Quarterback Dan LeFevour and company put up 31 points courtesy of 74 yard bomb to Senior Damien Linson and a Rick Albreski field goal to put the Chippewas up 10-7 going into half. Ohio scored to go up 14-10 to open the half. From there on it was all CMU with a 7 yard pass from LeFevour to Sophomore Ontairo Sneed to take the 17-14 lead for good, CMU put the game away with 6 minutes to go with a 96 Sneed touchdown run. CMU won the Mid-American Conference and an automatic bid to the Motor City Bowl. One thing in paritcluar got my attention when I look back at this past week. LeFevour said " We've got alot of tallent coming back next year, and of course Coach Kelly is staying." So riding the emotional high coming back from Detroit as champions with the whole nine yards, a CMU Police escort back home and behind the bus were the Chippewa faithful that followed back from Detroit at the early hours of Friday morning, honking and showing their love for their Chippewas.
The weekend was one of celebration, to celebrate something that has not happened in Mount Pleasant for 12 years. Even CM-Life's head line read CHAMPS! We thought as a football program we were golden going into the bowl game against Middle Tennessee State, but that golden feeling would turn into an iron feeling and one of heartbreak and betrayal. At 5 p.m. Sunday a team meeting was called, the news that was about to hit the players caught them totally off guard. Head Coach Brian Kelly told his team that he was taken the head coaching job at the University of Cincinnati. What...huh...why ? circulated through the team and the feelings of betrayal set in and emotions ran high.
About 7 p.m. my roommate got a phone call from a friend saying that Kelly has resigned at CMU and is heading to Cincinnati to take over the Bearcats football program. We both looked at each other and were like...what is this some kind of sick joke? So we went to the internet and looked right at the source, the bearcats website. Low and behold to be hit with. Kelly to be named Head Coach. Immediately we were shouting FUCK YOU BRIAN KELLY...but that solved nothing but getting out our inner emotions of anger, towards a coach that we all thought loved this university and community, but i guess not. So the end of the Brian Kelly era is here, he is gone. Monday night Athletic Director Dave Heeke appointed Associate Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator Jeff Quinn the interm head coach. So alight we have a leader and now we must look ahead to preparing for the Motor City Bowl and what i think will be a compete demolition of Middle Tennesee State. So yes, many hate groups have hit the popular facebook.com website, some of which have names such as FUCK BRIAN KELLY AND THE BEARCAT HE RODE OUT ON, Fuck Brian Kelly, and a personal favorite GO Western, Beat Brian Kelly, but a group that read peoples minds, So Brian Kelly is really gone...SHIT.
So this media circus has finally ended in a huge ball of flames. Kelly is gone Quinn is the new Coach for the time being..and our campus should realize that CMU is getting bigger and bigger, but is still a stepping stone for most coaches, there will never be another Joe Novak or Tom Amstutz in the MAC. We learned what we have learned under Kelly, not it is time to move on. So we all rally behind Coach Quinn, Dan LeFevour and company, giving them all the support we can give them so we can watch on December 26, the Chippewas decimate the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. Also, pull for your home conference the MAC, pull for Western especially since they are playing Cincinnati, NIU all the way in California, and Ohio all the way down in Mobile. Of course pull for Michigan to crush USC. So the Brian Kelly era is officially over. More to come.....and FIRE UP CHIPS!!!!
So riding an emotional high CMU enters the Mid-American Conference championship game against East Division foe the Bobcats of Ohio University, with a trip to the Motor City bowl on the line. Kelly and his Chippewas came out firing on all cylinders hitting the Bobcats with a shellacking they surely won't forget. Freshman Quarterback Dan LeFevour and company put up 31 points courtesy of 74 yard bomb to Senior Damien Linson and a Rick Albreski field goal to put the Chippewas up 10-7 going into half. Ohio scored to go up 14-10 to open the half. From there on it was all CMU with a 7 yard pass from LeFevour to Sophomore Ontairo Sneed to take the 17-14 lead for good, CMU put the game away with 6 minutes to go with a 96 Sneed touchdown run. CMU won the Mid-American Conference and an automatic bid to the Motor City Bowl. One thing in paritcluar got my attention when I look back at this past week. LeFevour said " We've got alot of tallent coming back next year, and of course Coach Kelly is staying." So riding the emotional high coming back from Detroit as champions with the whole nine yards, a CMU Police escort back home and behind the bus were the Chippewa faithful that followed back from Detroit at the early hours of Friday morning, honking and showing their love for their Chippewas.
The weekend was one of celebration, to celebrate something that has not happened in Mount Pleasant for 12 years. Even CM-Life's head line read CHAMPS! We thought as a football program we were golden going into the bowl game against Middle Tennessee State, but that golden feeling would turn into an iron feeling and one of heartbreak and betrayal. At 5 p.m. Sunday a team meeting was called, the news that was about to hit the players caught them totally off guard. Head Coach Brian Kelly told his team that he was taken the head coaching job at the University of Cincinnati. What...huh...why ? circulated through the team and the feelings of betrayal set in and emotions ran high.
About 7 p.m. my roommate got a phone call from a friend saying that Kelly has resigned at CMU and is heading to Cincinnati to take over the Bearcats football program. We both looked at each other and were like...what is this some kind of sick joke? So we went to the internet and looked right at the source, the bearcats website. Low and behold to be hit with. Kelly to be named Head Coach. Immediately we were shouting FUCK YOU BRIAN KELLY...but that solved nothing but getting out our inner emotions of anger, towards a coach that we all thought loved this university and community, but i guess not. So the end of the Brian Kelly era is here, he is gone. Monday night Athletic Director Dave Heeke appointed Associate Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator Jeff Quinn the interm head coach. So alight we have a leader and now we must look ahead to preparing for the Motor City Bowl and what i think will be a compete demolition of Middle Tennesee State. So yes, many hate groups have hit the popular facebook.com website, some of which have names such as FUCK BRIAN KELLY AND THE BEARCAT HE RODE OUT ON, Fuck Brian Kelly, and a personal favorite GO Western, Beat Brian Kelly, but a group that read peoples minds, So Brian Kelly is really gone...SHIT.
So this media circus has finally ended in a huge ball of flames. Kelly is gone Quinn is the new Coach for the time being..and our campus should realize that CMU is getting bigger and bigger, but is still a stepping stone for most coaches, there will never be another Joe Novak or Tom Amstutz in the MAC. We learned what we have learned under Kelly, not it is time to move on. So we all rally behind Coach Quinn, Dan LeFevour and company, giving them all the support we can give them so we can watch on December 26, the Chippewas decimate the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. Also, pull for your home conference the MAC, pull for Western especially since they are playing Cincinnati, NIU all the way in California, and Ohio all the way down in Mobile. Of course pull for Michigan to crush USC. So the Brian Kelly era is officially over. More to come.....and FIRE UP CHIPS!!!!