Belichick mystique hidden in Arkansas
Calls Pulaski Academy’s Kelley ‘top high school coach in country’
Bill Belichick was busy flattering his next opponent in familiar fashion Wednesday, building the Chargers up from the NFL’s basement to the height of football, when suddenly he detoured from compliment country to central Arkansas.
Los Angeles tight end Hunter Henry inspired the maneuver. Belichick first mentioned Henry’s impressive ability, then curiously referenced his high school, Pulaski Academy in Little Rock. Then, Belichick bizarrely name-dropped Henry’s high school coach.
Minutes later, almost 1,500 miles away, the coach’s phone buzzed to life, then buzzed again and again, to the point of seizing. Texts, tweets and calls flowed simultaneously, prompted by Belichick’s next comments. Not about Henry’s ability — but his old coach’s.
Coach Kevin Kelley, Belichick declared, is “probably the top high school coach in the country.”
“(I’ve) followed him. He’s a little unconventional, but he’s had great success. And he’s had a lot of (NFL) players come through there,” Belichick said. “We’ve had a couple other ones here. I have great respect for coach Kelley and the program he runs, and some of the creative things that he does.”
What Belichick omitted in his remarks was the growing relationship he’s shared with Kelley for years.
Kelley and his family have attended one Patriots home game every season as Belichick’s guests since 2015. The coaches first crossed paths in Indianapolis five years ago, when Kelley reached Belichick through a mutual friend and requested tickets to the Pats’ upcoming game at the Colts; a bold, calculated ask that, like most of his football decisions, yielded desired results.
For more than a decade, Kelley has been famous in coaching circles for his unorthodox methods, which include rarely punting and following most touchdowns with an onside kick. His fearless game management is entirely data-driven and has yielded eight Arkansas state championships in 16 years, plus national attention from The New York Times, Sports Illustrated and the Wall Street Journal.
That night in Indianapolis, Belichick granted the ticket request and met Kelley and his family after a blowout win. While appreciative of the meet-and-greet, Kelley was hardly star-struck. The nation’s best high school coach estimates he’s consulted for at least a dozen NFL teams and more than 100 college programs since he began building his .871 winning percentage at Pulaski Academy in 2003.
Though, his conversations with Belichick do stand out.
“I’ve gotten far more from him in our conversations — and I’ve never told him this — than I’ve gotten from every other NFL or college person I’ve ever talked to — combined,” Kelley told the Herald.
Kelley won’t reveal exactly what he’s learned from Belichick or even how often they talk, mindful of Belichick’s mandate to all his coaching friends that private conversations be kept private. Kelley is only willing to speak in broad terms and share that Belichick’s earliest advice permanently enhanced his program. Since they first shook hands, Pulaski Academy has won four Arkansas state titles.
“It’s been in-game utilization of people, and things that I’d never thought of,” Kelley said. “And definitely some program-building stuff. There’s a lot, but those are two of the areas that I took and directly applied back here.”
So what does Belichick gain from chatting with Kelley?
After all, his no-punt philosophy is easy enough to grasp. It’s the courage to convert fourth-and-10 from your own 30-yard line that continues to separate Kelley from his competition. Kelley is all but an open book. To his opponents, the coaching world, even corporate America.
Kelley moonlights as a speaker at corporate events because it pays better than high school coaching and, as he says: “Corporate people love football coaches.”
But not as much as Belichick. Kelley confesses he can’t explain why he’s remained in Belichick’s good graces for so long, aside from his calculated success. Part of him wants to believe Belichick sees his fellow 8-time champion as almost a kindred spirit. Men enveloped in public perceptions — Kelley as a pioneering mad scientist and Belichick as an all-time grump — who self-identify simply as a football coach.
“I think he likes people that really love the game of football because of all the things it does for people; the lessons and the values and what it takes to grind and the commitment to play the game and be a part of the game,” Kelley said. “I think he respects that because I think he sees that. … But I think it’s probably the fact that obviously, he’s a celebrity, and he views himself as a football coach.
“And I think he likes the fact that I view him as just a football coach; a great football coach.”
Kelley and Belichick also overlap as non-conformists. Belichick’s history of disregarding certain NFL norms is well-documented. He still won’t sit for the league’s annual head coaches photo.
Meanwhile, Kelley has made a career of unshackling himself from convention. The trophy case at Pulaski Academy validated his unique process long ago, but Kelley admits trips to Foxboro have generated the same sense of achievement whenever he hears Belichick voicing the pillars of his program before he’s spoken a word.
“It feels very similar to when you win a game, you know?” Kelley said. “I mean, what you feel when you consider one of the greatest coaches ever is telling you that he feels like you’re doing something right and proper? It’s obviously a feeling that gives you confidence, extreme confidence.”
Yet, the deepest, most fundamental sense Kelley carries after chatting with Belichick is purpose. Their conversations, like the Pats’ game plans or practice schedules, are powered by specific intention.
“I haven’t talked to him about this, but I feel like he’s got a reason for every little thing he does on the field,” Kelley said. “Everything he does in the facility and every word he says.”
In this way, they are again alike. The fearlessness on fourth down that made Kelley famous is not to be confused with rewarded recklessness. When Pulaski Academy’s head coach refuses to punt, he’s playing the percentages, not impulse or perception. Winning is his motivation, and data is his guide.
So long as Kelley’s pursuit of victory remains pure, he will continue to chase championships; a self-sustaining cycle that frames sports at all levels. The reward for winning one title as a coach is more time to pursue another. No one knows this better than Belichick, the NFL’s longest-tenured head coach with a record number rings and another important memory in Indianapolis.
Six years before he shook Kelley’s hand in the bowels of Lucas Oil Stadium, the Patriots failed to convert on fourth-and-2 from their 28-yard line in the final minutes of a tight game against the Colts and lost. Belichick’s decision to go for it was panned for days, locally and nationally. The call lives infamously in league lore.
Except, by the numbers, he was right. And so Belichick remained one of the most aggressive coaches on fourth down for years, reaching five more Super Bowls and hoisting three more Lombardi trophies before uttering Kelley’s name on Wednesday.
So if Belichick is consulting with an atypical high school coach from Arkansas, it’s for a reason.
Perhaps to learn or to teach. Or to coach or to chat.
But odds are, it’s simply to win.