June 22, 2009

(12:02 p.m.): I've got a preview of what was said today at the BK new contract presser on my Twitter page.

Go to twitter.com/katzonthecats to follow me and get the latest scoop. I'll be back here later for the complete story.

UPDATE (2:23 p.m.): Brian Kelly officially has signed his new five-year contract, and you know what that means? It means he thinks the Bearcats are on their way to competing for a BCS title.

Big East titles? Feh. Try national titles. That's what he wants now. Big change of perspective than when he was hired in 2006.

"Then, we were talking about winning and being competitive in the Big East," BK said. "Now we can talk about building a national championship program. No, we're not there yet. This contract really signifies the university's desires and wants to be a national player. That's all I wanted. Are you happy just being in the Big East? Or do you want to do this as a BCS program and compete every year at this level? Those decisions had to be made, or I wasn't signing it. They were able to put those pieces together that makes the university committed to being a BCS program."

It wasn't just about the money, though the coinage is actually pretty good. Kelly will receive a guaranteed $1.475 million during the next five years, along with the usual performance-based incentives. The buyout for this season will be $1 million, and for each subsequent season, that figure drops $250,000. The assistant coaches and support staff (15 overall) will receive a $275,000 raise to their pooled salary (when BK signed a new contract in December 2007, the pool was $1.5 million).

But for Kelly, the success of the contract was more about the paradigm shift from the administration.

"The pieces are now in place," BK said. "It's still a journey. We're only in this for 30 months. You do not build a national championship football program in 30 months. But what you do is stay committed to a program because the pieces are now coming together. That's the most exciting thing for me."

From Mike Thomas: "We are here today about the future of the UC program. Nobody is more important to the success of our program than our head football coach Brian Kelly. We want to sustain success for the long term. To do that, we need to provide Brian and his staff and his student-athletes with the resources to make that a reality. We've come a long way since December 2006. We know what Brian has done. We need to reward coach Kelly for those things and to make sure we have the sources to move forward. I'm excited about where we are as a program. I'm even more exited that Brian is going to be here for the long term."

One interesting facet of the presser is that the practice facility/practice bubble clause has been removed from the contract. The entire facility has to come from private donations - Mike Thomas said it could be called the Josh Katzowitz facility if I would donate some money; I said I could give him $10; he said he could get me one letter - and right now, it's taking a little more time than previously thought. BK seems OK with it, though. Probably because he said the team will begin using it during the 2010 season.

"We're actually doing a lot more," BK said. "The genesis of this whole practice thing is, `How do we get this to also be part of the community?' There are a couple high schools right down the street that don't have a place to play - Purcell-Marian and Hughes High School in particular. Why not put this field in a position where it can host high school games as well? We want to be part of the community. We took on additional seating, a press box. As it kept going, we saw we were gathering a lot of support from donors that want to see this. `Yeah, we know UC football needs a practice facility. We get that. But if it can be more than that, we're in.' That's why this thing has moved in the direction it has. If it takes four to five months later to get this done, it will be much better."

But yeah overall, a good day for BK. Not that he's going to take the rest of the day off playing in his newfound money.

"You have to be able to show success early and you have to show consistency," he said. "We're still in that model of, we've got to get them on board, but we have to show them consistency. You do that over three or four years. We've done that over two. This year is going to be an important year."