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Preparation ... by CJC

Numerous people in a position to know told me that Lou Holtz was very rarely taken by surprise. He thought through virtually every scenario in advance and figured out what he would do in each situation.

Holtz knew what he would say to his team if they were playing well at halftime, if they were playing poorly at halftime. He knew what he would say to his players in the immediate aftermath of a tough or controversial defeat.

I'm certain that Ara Parseghian was every bit Holtz's equal, if not even his superior, when it came to being prepared for every scenario.

This board has discussed, ad nauseam, both Brian Kelly's deficiencies in pre-game preparation and in-game adjustments, certainly in relation to the game's elite coaches. I have nothing to add there.

But I find Kelly's post-game comments instructive in that regard. To be clear, I don't feel the need to jack my blood pressure further by actually watching the video or even reading a transcript. My observations here are based upon reading media accounts and threads here, which contain some direct quotes. I'm comfortable that I understand the gist of what Kelly said, but if you're of the view that I'm not positioned to opine intelligently without watching the video or reading a transcript, you probably should consider moving on to the next thread right about now.

I'm sympathetic with the position of having to answer a question to which there's really no palatable public answer, over and over and over again. It gets frustrating. And I do find Kelly's "chippiness" to be consistent with my view of him as overly defensive, but I'm not losing a ton of sleep over the content of his statements. Like a good and loyal fan (in case Harvey is reading), I've followed the command of our fearless leader to "Get used to it."

But to me, Kelly's undisciplined response reflects a lack of preparation and forethought. Yep, the line of questioning is frustrating. Nope, there's no answer that's going to make people happy. But a great leader would anticipate the question (God knows that Kelly has had enough practice answering those questions) and fashion in advance an answer that doesn't make him sound like a kindergartner who just got his lunch money stolen for the eleventy-seventh time.

Ordinary leader, ordinary preparation, ordinary results.

I'm used to it.