The Receipts Are In: Notre Dame Fans Were Right About Brian Kelly All Along
- Bruce Straughan
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Art by The Irish Tribune
I’ll always give credit where credit is due, and Brian Kelly did help make Notre Dame relevant again. Although I’d argue he did so only in the win column and somewhat in recruiting, a brand like Notre Dame will always be relevant whether they go 12-0 or 4-8. After all, they are a “blue blood” and one of, if not the most storied programs in the history of college football. Brian Kelly consistently brought more wins to Notre Dame, but was often outcoached and never seemed to have his team motivated to win in the big games when the bright lights were on. So much so that many Notre Dame fans would often refer to him as “Big Game Brian” due to his lack of showing up in the games that mattered.
Notre Dame went through some really tough times after the glory days of Lou Holtz. And when I say tough times, I really mean horrific. After Holtz, we were subjected to the likes of underperforming coaches such as Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham, and Charlie Weis. Say what you want about Weis, he was the one who started the turnaround with high-caliber offensive recruits returning to South Bend, but that also proved to be a problem of the Weis era. Weis, a former offensive coordinator, was great at landing 5-star talent on the offense (such as Jimmy Clausen, Golden Tate, Michael Floyd, and Kyle Rudolph, to name a few), but he abandoned or at least didn’t focus on the defensive side of the ball. In short, Notre Dame under Weis could score on anybody, but also couldn’t stop anybody either.
In comes Brian Kelly, who recruited equally on both sides of the ball, but never could land the big talent that even Weis was able to land. In fact, Weis signed more five-stars (7) through his five classes than Brian Kelly did in his first 10 classes (6). In many ways, Notre Dame effectively sells itself in terms of recruiting, particularly in the academic realm and the potential for playing at the next level in the NFL. Brian Kelly took the lazy approach while relying on his coaching staff to do the majority of the work in recruiting, which seemed to match the rumors of some former players saying that they never even met Kelly until they reached campus. Kelly didn’t exactly do a great job of shooting down these rumors when he famously once said that he would rather be on a golf course than out recruiting.
Brian Kelly was good at getting Notre Dame anywhere from 9 to 11 wins in a season consistently (and even going undefeated twice during his tenure), but that was the ceiling for him. Many were growing tired of his attitude that fans should just be happy with that, but coaches are hired at Notre Dame to win championships, and if they fall short, fans will make their displeasure heard. Fast forward to 2016, which proved to be a breaking point for many fans when the team led by Kelly finished the season at 4-8. With a storied program such as Notre Dame and a dry spell of championships since 1988, fans had run out of patience with Kelly and his smug attitude and wanted him fired.
When Kelly decided to bolt for LSU in 2021 (in what felt like a middle-of-the-night move, much like he pulled on Cincinnati when he left for Notre Dame), although many were tired of his antics, it was a slap in the face to a university that had loyally stood behind him, to a fault, I might add. If that wasn't enough, he left with some parting shots when he said, "I want to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship." That was a clear shot at the university and placed all the blame on the reason he fell short of a national championship at Notre Dame. Placing blame on others for his shortcomings has always been the route Kelly liked to take, as he would often throw players and his coaches under the bus when things weren't going right.
Notre Dame fans tried to warn LSU fans all across social media that Brian Kelly wasn't all that he seemed to be, which led to LSU fans calling Notre Dame fans "jealous" and "scorned ex-girlfriends." Fast forward four short years later and the LSU student section rained chants of "Fire Kelly" as they were getting their doors blown off at home at the hands of Texas A&M last night. Notre Dame fans were never anti-LSU, as the two schools don't have much of a history facing off against each other, but they were trying to warn them of the negative side of what hiring Brian Kelly brings with it.
In any sport, there are good coaches and then there are great coaches, and Brian Kelly is a good coach, not a great coach. LSU is not a patient school that will sit around and wait for a coach to get it together. It was only a matter of time before they would get tired of Kelly's antics and lack of big wins, before they would be ready to move on. Today, many Notre Dame fans feel vindicated and rightfully so, as they had already seen the ending of this movie. Notre Dame was never the problem; Brian Kelly was and is.
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