Here’s Brian Kelly’s leaked 3 1/2-minute speech to Notre Dame players after accepting LSU job

Good morning, guys. Thanks for getting up here in short order, short notice. As you know, I sent out a text last night, trying to give you as much notice as possible given the circumstances that you all know, that happened over social, and information getting out. Look, I know we’ve been through this together, I’ve recruited, personally, everybody in this room. And I wanna be able to tell you, face-to-face, why we’re at where we’re at. And that is, very simply, that the past 12 years have been the most incredible 12 years of my life. For me, for my family, being here at Notre Dame, magical in what what we’ve been able to build with the most incredible student athletes — the ones that I’m looking at right now. 

So many times, people are looking for a reason to blame, or 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. 

But there comes a time where you look in your life for another opportunity, and I felt like it was time in my life for another challenge. And I saw that opportunity in a very short window, and I felt like it was best for me and my family to pursue a new challenge. So there’s no one to blame, there’s nobody at fault, nobody did anything wrong. You guys have been the backbone of this program, and what you’ve accomplished, and will continue to do that.

If you’re one of the four best teams in the country, Jack is going to get somebody that’s going to continue to lead this program in incredible fashion. I don’t know what it holds for us, but I hope to heaven it means you’re playing for the national championship because you absolutely deserve it.

So, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank every one of you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you directly. ‘Cause you don’t get that chance very often. And thank you for allowing me to pursue what I love to do, and that’s to develop 18-to-21 year olds. And you will continue to achieve at the highest level, and will have great success, no matter what moves forward for you.

Again, thank you. I love each and every one of you. And for me, more than anything else, it’s a sad day, but one where I know each one of you are gonna do great things, and you’ve got more to accomplish. I wish everybody here the very best, and thank you for the opportunity that you’ve given me, and my family. Thank you guys, I appreciate it.