Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly said he was joking when he tried to echo a quote from former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach John McKay after Sunday’s 41-38 victory in overtime. state of Florida.
When Katie George of the ABC asked her why Notre Dame was enduring a furious rally in the state of Florida, Kelly replied, “I’m in favor of execution. Maybe we need to run our entire team after “tonight. We just didn’t perform very well.”
Ninth-ranked Fighting Irish led 38-20 entering the fourth quarter, but outscored 18-0 in the final 13:42 of regulation.
During the Buccaneers ’inaugural season in 1976, when the team went from 0 to 14, McKay was once asked about his team’s performance. The celebrity replied, “I’m in favor.”
“It’s an old John McKay quote,” Kelly told reporters in Tallahassee. “I was joking. It was cheeky language. Wasn’t it funny? … He was talking and joking about it. Did he get serious? Are you crazy?”
Kelly’s comment on ABC immediately sparked a strong reaction on social media.
Prior to his tenure at Tampa Bay, McKay coached Southern California for 16 seasons and won four national championships. It became the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988.
“It’s a quote from John McKay that he used after a game,” Kelly said. “I stole one of his old dates from him and he was funny, because no one likes to be funny. If you want to take me to town for that, do it.”