Notre Dame Football: Where does Brian Kelly rank among CFB coaches?

The Notre Dame Football program has a special head coach in Brian Kelly, so where does he rank nationally in that department?

Brian Kelly can be a bit polarizing among fans, both of Notre Dame Football, and not. He inherited a program that was in shambles after Charlie Weis was a disaster. Frankly, everyone since Lou Holtz had been a disaster for this Notre Dame football program.

At the time, Kelly was the coach most in demand around the country. He had made Cincinnati elite, going 34-6 in just three seasons there. Before that, he turned around Central Michigan, which was a major risk for him to take, and he won over 100 games and two National Championships and Division II Grand Valley State.

He was known for his explosive offenses at the time.

At Notre Dame, he immediately improved the team from who was sitting at about .500 to an eight-win team. By year three, they were one of the best defenses in football, and Kelly almost joined the lineage of Irish coaches to win a National Championship in their third season.

To an extent, there was a regression to the mean from there, as he’d average nine wins in the next three seasons. That’s much better than things were before he got to South Bend, but it still doesn’t hit the historic standard at Notre Dame. His offenses, also, had not lived up to expectations at this point.

The next season was a disaster. 2016 saw Notre Dame go 4-8, and Kelly needed to take a step back and re-evaluate what he was doing at Notre Dame. That started with clearing house at coordinator.

Chip Long and Mike Elko became the respective coordinators, and with that Kelly improved Notre Dame from where they had been in the past twenty years. In 2017, Notre Dame would go 10-3 with a Citrus Bowl win. Elko left, but that didn’t matter. Clark Lea came in and the defense kept getting better.

In the three years since then, the Irish have made two College Football Playoffs and have an overall record of 33-5. Now, they have continued to fall short in postseason play, but they’re right there, making the games, which they haven’t had the ability to do at all before Kelly.

Now, there are questions about whether or not Kelly can get over the hump and if he can win big games, but he’s already done an amazing job.