I’m sure most of you sports fans out there are familiar with Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” If nothing else, it should ring a bell from your junior high English class you failed.

In any event, what the reader is supposed to get out of Frost’s work is that people should think outside of the box and not do what everyone else has done, simply because it’s how things work. Whether it’s walking a different way to work, or not taking a college football coaching gig, the lesson can apply. What (now former) Cincinnati coach, Brian Kelly, did last night was follow the traveled path of coaches before him.

Kelly got a five-year deal from Notre Dame and will be introduced as coach in South Bend on Friday afternoon. He declined to comment in Cincinnati, where he informed his players of the move after their football banquet Thursday night. He won’t coach them in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

The way the system works now is that coaches need to turn a crap program into at least a respectable one and they can move on up. Kelly’s road was from division II to a couple of division I teams. When being offered the opportunity to coach at Notre Dame, Kelly could have said “up yours” in the most impolite terms, and showed coaches that once they turn their team into a powerhouse, they don’t need to leave for a program with a supposed better history. They can stay and make history with their current team.

While I was expecting Kelly to take the job, I was a little saddened for Cincinnati. To get this far, not get a chance at the title, and lose your coach must… well… suck.

By the way, can we do away with that practice, too? Taking coaches away from their teams before the season is over. It’s as if Notre Dame wanted show up the Cincy folks. “We’re going to take your coach from your undefeated team before your BCS bowl game, because we can.”

Seems like a dick move to me.

[via ESPN]