Notre Dame Football: Relevance Should Not Be Enough for the Irish
By Ian Blum
After an awful 2016, Brian Kelly successfully adapted the way he coaches. He changed the culture of the locker room and now it looks as if the Irish will be a game short of the playoff. So, Notre Dame should fire him and here’s why.
Let me start by saying that this is not anything that seems realistic. If anything Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick is relieved that Kelly turned things around so that he doesn’t have the burden of calling coaches over the holidays. Job interviews are uncomfortable for everyone involved so I can’t blame him.
However, one must wonder just how much better Notre Dame will get under Head Coach Brian Kelly. Notre Dame is known in the lore of College Football as a dynastic sort of superpower. They own the majority of fans from the states of Illinois and Indiana as well. Despite this many cannot help but ask themselves, “Wait, so what has Notre Dame done again?”
Let’s take a trip back to 2010. After a successful run at the University of Cincinnati, coach Brian Kelly makes his way to South Bend. During his first season, Kelly posts an 8-5 record with the Irish. Besides beating USC and Miami in the Sun Bowl Kelly loses just about every meaningful game of the year. Losses to Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford, and Navy stick out like a sore thumb. But it is only his first season so how high could expectations be?
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One season later and momentum is growing in South Bend. The fans know that the players had a full year to gain an even greater understanding of the system Kelly has put before them. The roster looks good and the all-important year three is right around the corner. Okay Coach, let’s see how you did. Oh, 8-5, again. Besides a really gross looking loss to South Florida Kelly’s team fell short against good teams. They fell to then 4th ranked rival Stanford and 25th Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl.
2012, year three. After two full recruiting cycles this is the year that will make or break a head coach. Kelly did himself a favor by not losing a game all of the regular season. Oh yes a 12-0 Irish team, it was like the world was back to normal. When Notre Dame was 1st in the last BCS Poll with Alabama not far behind at 2 I think we all got excited. The grandfathers peeked out from their air raid shelters, celebrating that the bombs dropped in Chip Kelly’s spread offense would not fall in Miami. We got what we wanted. Two physical teams that were traditional powers, prepared to do serious damage. Sadly as we all know it was a bust. In the biggest game of Brian Kelly’s life, his football team laid an absolute egg and got rolled over by the Tide 42-14.
Since that game Kelly has won the Pinstripe and Music City Bowl, defeating Rutgers and LSU respectively. They were outdone by Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl 44-28 and then lost 8 games in 2016. Kelly’s Fighting Irish are a mere 3-3 in Bowl Games including the National Championship game.
Fast forward to this season and once again when the chips were down Kelly got out coached. Miami steamrolled Notre Dame dragging the Irish back down to earth after an 8-0 start. With two games left to go in the season, it will once again be an opportunity wasted.
Fans will enjoy improvement from one year to the next. They will be happy that the team is talked about again and dream about just how close they really are.
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Brian Kelly has never won the big game at Notre Dame. Any time he sniffs postseason success the door is slammed in his face.
If Notre Dame and their fans want to be more then relevant, if they want to restore ties to the programs legendary past, they need to make then change. Fire Brian Kelly and find the coach that will lead the team to the promise land.