Notre Dame football: Brian Kelly must exorcise big-game demons

Kelly’s career has two defining features

Since the loss to Alabama in the 2012-13 BCS National Championship Game, Kelly’s career has had two defining features. The first, which is often underappreciated, is that since then, Kelly has taken Notre Dame back to a prominent role in the college football landscape. The fifteen years prior, they had been a has-been, and under Kelly, they have largely been one of the top-10 teams in the country.

However, in the eyes of a lot of people, this has been overshadowed by his habit of losing big games. This habit has kept the Irish on the outside of the elite, looking in over the past decade.

Since the loss to Alabama, a heartbreaker to Florida State derailed the 2014 season, three losses to ranked teams including Clemson and Ohio State marred the 2015 season. Then there was the 2017 Catholics vs Conflicts disaster, Notre Dame dropped two games to Georgia because their offense couldn’t get out of first gear, and they lost to Clemson in a disastrous 2018 Cotton Bowl performance.

Finally, earlier this season, they seemed to exorcise those demons by beating Clemson, but a blowout loss to that same Tigers team has had the college football world saying, “Same old Notre Dame. Big game losers.”

When Notre Dame first lost to Alabama, it was a talent gap that ruined the Irish. Recruiting at Notre Dame is more difficult than at schools in the SEC, or most traditional power programs, as there’s a higher standard academically, fewer benefits for athletes, and everyone is on TV every week.