Maintaining A Gold Standard At Notre Dame Is Brian Kelly’s Challenge
By Kyle Kensing
Apr 20, 2013; Notre Dame, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly waits to lead his team onto the field for the Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Brian Kelly was hired at Notre Dame to restore the Golden Dome to its past luster. In 2012, he did just that.
But Kelly’s responsibility as the 30th coach in program history is maintaining that gleam. As the calendar turned from a banner 2012 to 2013, the reality of how difficult it is to sustain success became readily apparent.
• Jan. 7: Notre Dame loses the BCS championship to Alabama, 42-14.
• Jan. 16: Deadspin.com breaks news of Heisman Trophy runner-up and UND star linebacker Manti Te’o’s involvement in an online hoax. A source insinuates Te’o was complicit in perpetuating the hoax for his Heisman campaign, though this is never substantiated.
• May 23: UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora tweets a welcome to five-star defensive tackle Eddie Vanderdoes, signifying his departure from Notre Dame. A public battle for a release from his National Letter of Intent ensues.
• May 26: Starting quarterback Everett Golson is dismissed from the university for academic reasons.
• Aug. 18: Starting linebacker Danny Spond retires from football after suffering debilitating migraines.
• Aug. 20: Five-star 2014 running back prospect Elijah Hood decommits from the Irish. Hood is gracious and complimentary of Notre Dame in his statement, but his departure strikes a significant blow to a signing class that with him would rank among the nation’s very best.
This half-year of adversity coupled with Notre Dame football’s recent precedent of underachievement soured the general punditry on the Fighting Irish.
Notre Dame is ranked No. 14 in the AP poll, which seems disproportionately low for a national runner-up with 12 returning starters. CBSSports.com bowl projection analyst Jerry Palm has the Irish slated for the Pinstripe Bowl.
Plenty of indicators suggest that Notre Dame is equipped to deal with the adversity and, for a second straight year, prove naysayers wrong.
Louis Nix III and Stephon Tuitt lead one of, if not the best defensive line in the nation. Depth in the backfield gives UND a dangerous rushing attack.
Kelly has also reestablished the program as a preeminent recruiting power. His 2013 class ranked No. 3 nationally, per Rivals.com, and the 2014 crop of verbal pledges is still No. 10 despite losing Hood.
All signs point to Notre Dame being back on the big stage for the long haul. Still, there’s an underlying Boy Who Cried Wolf theme Kelly’s program must shake. Too many times before, Notre Dame has been back, only to restart the renovation process.
Notre Dame was back in 2000 under Bob Davie, winning nine regular season games and appearing in the Fiesta Bowl. But then Oregon State leveled a 41-9 beatdown that sent the Fighting Irish reeling into a 5-6 finish the following season.
Again, UND was back in the mid-2000s with Charlie Weis’ decided schematic advantage. A combined 19 regular season wins produced consecutively BCS bowl invitations — and both times, the Irish was dispatched by double-digit point margins.
The 2001 and 2007 Fighting Irish followed their preceding BCS embarassment with a combined 8-15 record, and Davie and Weis were gone within a combined three years.
Cycles are difficult to break, and that’s precisely the challenge Kelly faces. The key difference this time is that cracks in the Golden Dome are filled.
The weaknesses of the 2000, 2005 and 2006 Irish were evident, despite their win totals. Those UND teams fell short when the games were most meaningful. Last year’s Irish had a knack for rising to the occasion.
Oct. 27, 2012; Norman, OK, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive end Stephon Tuitt (7) celebrates after Notre Dame defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 30-13 at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Put aside the mismatch against Alabama; Nick Saban is arguably the greatest coach of all-time, and the Crimson Tide has become a veritable machine. Alabama is the game’s outlier, and the benchmark programs including Notre Dame are pursuing.
Otherwise, UND shined in its most meaningful contests against the eventual Rose Bowl champion Stanford and co-Big 12 champion Oklahoma.
Last year’s Irish was the program’s best squad since 1993, which arguably should have played for the national championship.
UND played nine teams that reached bowl games. Nine. Had Miami not sacrificed its eligibility to the NCAA, the Irish faced and defeated 10 bowl-bound opponents.
There’s no comparison when the 2012 team’s accomplishments are stacked against those of previous BCS-qualifying Irish. The 2000 squad started 2-2, against the most challenging stretch of a schedule with just five bowl opponents.
The 2005 team beat big names like Tennessee and Michigan, but both went on to disappointing finishes. In 2006, UND faced its best top-to-bottom competition, but was easily outclassed by upper echelon competition in Michigan and USC.
Whereas those previous teams lived off the Notre Dame name and let pundits down, Brian Kelly’s program is having to prove itself in spite of the name.
Editor’s note: BCS championship game date was corrected to Jan. 7.