Notre Dame Football: Brian Kelly to battle former team in 2023

Notre Dame Football added Central Michigan, a team with a lot of history for head coach Brian Kelly, to their 2023 schedule as an eleventh game.

Notre Dame Football announced that they will be adding Central Michigan to their 2023 football schedule, and it has become fairly commonplace for Notre Dame to schedule a MAC team as an early-season tune-up, with games like Bowling Green and Ball State in recent seasons. It should be an easy win, but there is an added intrigue as Central Michigan, like the Cincinnati game in 2021, is one of the teams Brian Kelly was the head coach of before going to Notre Dame.

Kelly went to Central Michigan gambling on himself. In fact, Kelly has even said that going from Grand Valley State to Central Michigan was the biggest gamble of his career. It might not sound like that high pressure of a job, but winning at Central Michigan is historically very difficult.

Meanwhile, he had a winning formula at Grand Valley State, going 118-35-2 in 13 seasons and winning back-to-back National Championships to end his time there. Central Michigan wasn’t just going from FCS to FBS, but it was going from Division II to FBS.

They also hadn’t won more than four games under previous head coach, Mike DeBord. 1998 was the last time they’d had a winning record and 1994 had been their last bowl appearance.

Things were decidedly difficult at first.  Still, Kelly had Central Michigan turning a corner quickly. 4-7 looks bad, but it was better than the year before, and it included a more difficult out of conference schedule and several close losses, including in four overtimes to Eastern Michigan.

The next season, Kelly managed to earn a winning record, at 6-5, but four one-score losses, including in overtime to Eastern Michigan again, cost them a chance at a bowl game. One year later, in Kelly’s final season at Central Michigan, he’d finally have them back in a bowl game for the first time in over a decade.

A 10-4 record with a win in the Motor City Bowl was great, but winning the MAC was even better, and he even beat Eastern Michigan this time around.

It was a complete turnaround in Mount Pleasant, at a 19-16 record in three seasons, and it earned Kelly the job at Cincinnati in the Big East. It wouldn’t be a complete turnaround at Cincinnati, as Mark Dantonio left for Michigan State, leaving the Bearcats in good shape, but Kelly did improve on what Dantonio had done, finishing with three top-25 finishes in as many seasons.

This time his three-season record would be 34-6 and Kelly was getting the call from Notre Dame.

Notre Dame Football 2023 schedule coming into focus

Central Michigan is the 11th game that Notre Dame has added to the 2023 schedule, leaving them room to add one more. There are already six ACC teams on the schedule in 2023 as well, so expect it to come from somewhere besides the conference. The options will be limited to fill that last spot, however, as scheduling is often done up to a decade in advance and many teams have filled their available out of conference slots already.

Notre Dame’s 2023 schedule already has trips to Clemson and Stanford on it, while the Irish host Ohio State and USC. So, an easier game might be worth considering. UConn has multiple open slots to fill as an Independent. Central Michigan, meanwhile, adds Notre Dame as its fourth out of conference game, along with Michigan State, South Alabama, and New Hampshire.