10 college football coaches who need turnarounds to avoid 2017 hot seat

Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly argues a call in the fourth quarter against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly argues a call in the fourth quarter against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly argues a call in the fourth quarter against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly argues a call in the fourth quarter against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /

The hot seat was already beginning to scald Brian Kelly in the second month of 2016, and at a school steeped in tradition there is only one prescription to turn down the temperature: win. His seventh season in South Bend was an unmitigated disaster, as a team that entered the season ranked in the top ten bombed to a 4-8 finish one year after playing in the Fiesta Bowl.

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Kelly’s career with the Fighting Irish has been one of peaks and valleys, but never before had there been an absolute plummet on the order of 2016. In his third season Notre Dame was playing for the BCS National Championship.

Two years ago, two-point losses at Clemson and Stanford prevented the Irish from another chance at ending its national title drought. In between, the first few years and the time between double-digit wins still resulted in bowl appearances.

Kelly has faced heat before, most notably for the way the university handled Lizzy Seeberg sexual assault accusations and subsequent suicide and the death of Declan Sullivan during his first year at the helm. But winning has cooled down the hot seat before for Kelly, and if he hopes to survive beyond an eighth season he will need to restore Notre Dame to national prominence once again.