Notre Dame Football: Would Brian Kelly have titles in a different era?

So how many titles for Brian Kelly?

So, the modern era is more structured and more difficult to win a National Championship than it was for most of college football history. You can still claim a championship, but it is widely thought of like a fool’s errand. All of this is unfortunate for Brian Kelly because depending on the era, he’d have at least one National Championship already, with his legacy sealed as one of the all-time greats and a College Football Hall of Fame coach.

The 2012 team, playing before 1970, would be voted the National Champions. The 2018 and 2020 teams didn’t finish the regular season number one overall, so they may have ended up splitting the Championship with Clemson or Alabama.

Playing between about 1970 and 1992 any of the three Notre Dame teams would have had a major bowl game to play. Except, it likely wouldn’t have been as tough a game as they got in the BCS Championship Game or College Football Playoff.

It’s impossible to say they would have won them, but they would have had at least as good a shot as what ended up happening anyway. In the strictly poll era, they would have won at least one National Championship under Brian Kelly.

That’s why it’s worth remembering that, yes, Kelly hasn’t gotten over that final hump, but that hump is hirer now than it ever had been before. Kelly will leave Notre Dame as the winningest coach in program history, so don’t forget that he is great and turned the program around from the worst it may have ever been. Brian Kelly is a Hall of Fame coach, whether he beats Nick Saban or not.