Notre Dame Football: Where does Brian Kelly rank among CFB coaches?
Notre Dame Football: Where does Brian Kelly rank among college football coaches?
Winning at Notre Dame Isn’t Easy
When Kelly got to Notre Dame, he ran into issues that he likely didn’t expect, and to an extent, is still figuring out. This starts with recruiting. At Notre Dame, there is an academic standard to reach, which limits to some extent the pool of players who can go to Notre Dame.
However, where the academic standard comes into play, it especially lowers who wants to go to Notre Dame.
Irish players receive less (Not none, mind you) special treatment than elite players at other schools. It is also harder to keep them academically eligible than at your standard SEC or B1G 10 school, for instance.
He also had to find a personality at Notre Dame. One example of this came after the 2012-13 BCS National Championship Game, as Kelly decided to reemphasize the offensive line going forward, to win in the trenches.
Still, Kelly is just figuring out how to recruit at Notre Dame, and things are getting better in that respect. The real issue is that Notre Dame Football is not special in terms of their TV deal, which means that elite players don’t need to go to South Bend to be on TV every week.
This also means they don’t have to go to South Bend, a Midwestern town where it is going to be cold, they likely don’t live near to and deal with those academic rigors. Add in the fact that current recruits were born at the end of the Tyrone Willingham, and even the start of the Charlie Weis’ eras, which means the best image they have of Notre Dame is big game chokers who were good before their parents were in school.
All of this makes recruiting difficult. So, don’t take what Kelly has done for granted. He’s starting with a less naturally talented roster that he needs to develop over four years and convince to come to Notre Dame instead of warm weather or local schools.
Considering that in a different era, Notre Dame would have at least one National Championship under Brian Kelly, it’s impossible to be anything less than impressed by Kelly. What’s even more impressive is that over a decade into the Brian Kelly era, he’s still improving at Notre Dame.