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Notre Dame Football: 20 biggest wins of the Brian Kelly era

By Daniel Morrison

SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 12: Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly looks on during a game against the USC Trojans at Notre Dame Stadium on October 12, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated USC 30-27. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 12: Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly looks on during a game against the USC Trojans at Notre Dame Stadium on October 12, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated USC 30-27. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Notre Dame football. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Notre Dame football. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Notre Dame Football: 20 biggest wins of the Brian Kelly era

6. Notre Dame 28, Utah 3 (2010)

The Irish were in rough shape in 2010. Notre Dame was 4-5, on the verge of missing bowl eligibility, and worse yet, not showing improvement on the Charlie Weis era. After losses to Navy and Tulsa, beating a ranked Utah team seemed like a long shot at best.

In fact, the Utes had been ranked as high as 6th, before a loss to TCU bumped them to 15th. This was when both those programs were in the Mountain West and a single loss ended their seasons.

Notre Dame would deliver that second loss to kill Utah’s hopes of a BCS bowl while saving their own hopes for any bowl game and they would do so in blowout fashion. Utah scored a long field goal to score first, but it was all Irish from there.

Tommy Rees, meanwhile, was effectively efficient with three touchdown passes on 129 yards, including two to Duval Kamara. From there, Notre Dame would win out, giving Brian Kelly a respectable first season in South Bend, but losing a game they maybe should have lost to Utah played a major factor in that turnaround.

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