CINCINNATI -- Perhaps the most talked about man in town is University of Cincinnati football coach Brian Kelly. With his team 7-0 and ranked in the top 10, he's not only the toast of town, he's the buzz in sports circles across the nation.
It's good to be Brian Kelly and it's also exhausting.
Earlier this week, 9News was allowed to go behind the scenes with Kelly and what we saw was fascinating.
On coach Kelly's shelves are the typical things -- football, helmets, championship rings, and thank yous from all sorts of organizations where he has spoken.
Building a program means being in the public.
"Our off week, when we didn't play I was busier than any other time since I've been here just doing things in the community because, again, take advantage of your opportunity. If your stock is doing well, you want to get out there and make sure you get more people investing."
A perfect season, a top ranked team, adoring fans, and building a program. Those are just a few of the things Kelly has to think about.
He's building the program with wins and by drumming up community support.
From August 2008 to this past July, Kelly spoke at 81 events and held 165 media events during last year's football season.
UC's Athletic Director, Mike Thomas, says Kelly's dedication is intense. "There was one particular week just last year when I got three different invitations to events in the community to go as a spectator and the guest speaker at every one of them, was Brian. And that was just one week," said Thomas.
Kelly signs footballs, towels, anything you put before him because he knows it all matters. "I think all this goes to the heart of want we're trying to do, build a football program. All these little things sometimes, we get caught up in the minutia of it, but it goes to the heart of building a program," he said.
"Today's a preparation day in terms of watching film and all that stuff for me," Kelly said while watching film on Tuesday.
There's no celebrating now.
No time.
"Then we go to a press conference at noon and talk about the next opponent and then get into practice," Kelly said.
When asked about practice Kelly said, "This is the fun part. This kinda energizes you. When you get in your classroom and get a chance to get out here and interact with the players and really look at them and see them get better every single day, so this is the time of the day when you get your energy. And it allows me to keep moving through the rest of the day."
His 16-hour day is packed. Before arriving in his office, he's already logged two hours talking to the media from home and his day won't end until late that night.
This happens virtually every day, 11 months out of the year.
We asked the coach, "When do you mentally relax?"
"Sunday between 10 and 11:30," he said.
"You get a whole hour and a half out of a whole week, huh?"
"Yeah, it's just you get into this - it's almost like being on a treadmill - you just keep moving your feet forward, you know? You just don't get off it," said Kelly.
There's always something...like footballs to sign. A pile builds each week at his assistant, Beth Rex's desk. And the coach signs all of it.
"You ever get sick of it?"
"It's part of my job," Kelly said.
And he means that. The signatures help spread the gospel of Brian Kelly and build the football program.
"It's building a base for our program. A support base that, quite frankly, hasn't been there. We're trying to building a foundation," Kelly said.
Kelly's day is a series of 15 minute increments. The blue stuff on his calendar, community or media events, the purple stuff, football practice or planning, the green, and anything related to his three young kids.
He's quite honest about the fact that there aren't enough hours in the day. "That's the toughest part. You can say whatever you want. You can say there's balance. There's no balance. You hope that the quality of life and where you live, I mean, being in Cincinnati is huge for the time that you spend away from your family because you've got a great quality of life."
Right now Kelly's life involves more media with news conferences and writers and photographers waiting for that perfect sound bite. And when it's over? More media, circling and waiting and questioning.
But, like he's said before.. he's gotta do it.
"What time do you walk out of here at night, generally?"
"About 10 o'clock. It's about an 80-90 hour week. There's a lot of work involved in this process of building it. We're still building it. We're not there yet, you know," Kelly said.
With so much to do each day, we asked him if it ever gets to be too much?
"It's never overwhelming, but there's a sense of, just leave me alone for an hour. I don't want to talk to anybody. Just leave me alone to recharge my battery to keep going. And it's not that you're fatigued. You're over stimulated. And you just need an hour to say, 'leave me alone'," he said.
His assistant, Beth, puts it this way. "Everybody wants to have a little piece of him."
And that can be a double edged sword. His success on the field makes him a top contender whenever there's talk of another program needing a new coach.
So...will he stay or will he leave?
"Why would you want to leave? I mean, Cincinnati is a quality of life, family, and they want to build something great here. I mean, how cool is it to build something that's never been built before? It's never been done," Kelly said.
