Examining Brian Kelly’s struggles on the big stage at Notre Dame

Jack Leniart
Jul 25, 2017 · 4 min read

Similar to all other major sports, college football coaches that do not have success in the postseason will eventually be fired. For the teams in the Power-5 conferences of college football, postseason success is not defined as having a winning record in all bowl games. The players, staffs, recruits, and fans of those programs care about appearances and victories in the major six bowl games, two of which are semifinal games for the College Football Playoff. If you are unfamiliar with the major college football bowl games, they are the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose (might be rebranded as Rosé in the future), and Sugar Bowls.

In his seven years at Notre Dame, Brian Kelly has lead the Irish to six bowl games. His record in those games is 3–3. If all bowl games were equal, this wouldn’t be a bad record. However, we all know the truth is that not all bowl games are equal. In major bowl games, Brian Kelly and the Irish are 0–2, losing such contests by an average margin of 22 points. Yikes.

Even though the remaining four bowl games in the Brian Kelly era are considered second-tier or lower, the Irish still faced some marquee opponents. They beat Miami (FL) in the Sun Bowl in 2010, lost a close game to Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl in 2011, and upset LSU in the Music City Bowl in 2014.

Notre Dame’s last victory in a major bowl game came in the 1994 Cotton Bowl against Texas A&M. The game was played on January 1, 1994. If you are active on social media platforms, you may have recently seen people that love to poke fun at Notre Dame sharing a statistic about how many days have passed since the Irish last won a game played in January, which is when most of the major bowl games are played. As of today (July 25, 2017) that number would be 8,606 days.

Notre Dame’s last major bowl win came at the end of what some might call a golden age for Irish football. In all of the seven seasons leading up to and including the 1993 season, Notre Dame ended their season playing in one of the major bowl games. The Irish were 5–2 in those games.

No one could have predicted the drought that followed the victory in the 1994 Cotton Bowl. Notre Dame would not win another bowl game until 2008. During this stretch, the Irish had five appearances in major bowl games. They lost four of those games by double digits. Their worst defeat (by point margin) came in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl, where they lost to Oregon State 41–9.

The point of this quick trip down memory lane was to paint a picture of the current state of the Notre Dame football program and the standards to which t hey hold their coaches. Older alumni and fans are desperate for a major bowl win and a chance to play for another national championship.

Brian Kelly’s greatest achievement at Notre Dame was the 2012 season when the Irish went 12–0 and earned a spot in the BCS National Championship Game. The excitement of Irish fans at the time was quickly dampened as the Irish went on to lose to Alabama by 28 points. For fans, this was the first red flag. Most mistakes made in a coach’s first two seasons can be forgiven, but the third year is when judgements start to be made. Although Kelly lead the Irish to the national championship, he showed that he wasn’t able to properly prepare his team for the biggest stage in college football.

Since then, the team has been trending downwards. It hasn’t been a sharp decline, but it has been noticeable. There was another peak in 2015. Notre Dame finished with a 10–2 record and received an invitation to play in the Fiesta Bowl. They lost that game to Ohio State by 16 points. This was Brian Kelly’s second appearance in a major bowl game, and it was another disappointing performance.

We all know how the 2016 season went.

I was thinking about bowl game performances and what they tell us about a given program. There are a ton of variables that determine the outcome of a college football game. When it comes to bowl games, however, I think one important variable stands out. Besides the attention and added pressure, the main difference between regular season games and bowl games is the time that teams have to rest and prepare. In these games, the better coaching staff should have the advantage. Bowl games are typically match-ups between two roughly equal teams. This means that the game plans devised by each coaching staff are one of the main differentiating factors in deciding the outcome.

In the case of Notre Dame, it would appear that Brian Kelly and his coaching staff have been out-coached in their two major bowl games. Considering their opponents were Alabama and Ohio State, you may think this is an obvious statement. What has raised serious questions about Brian Kelly is the margin of defeat in both games. There are two possible areas of concern: either Notre Dame’s schemes are easy to break down and game plan against, or Notre Dame’s coaching staff has trouble designing and implementing game plans that are effective against elite opponents.

Golden Domer Daily

A one-stop blog for Notre Dame athletics and recruiting.

Jack Leniart

Written by

Notre Dame Grad '14. Writer for Golden Domer Daily (@NDDomerDaily). @Leniart_ND on Twitter.

Golden Domer Daily

A one-stop blog for Notre Dame athletics and recruiting.

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