Notre Dame Football: 5 biggest overreactions from 2017 regular season

2. Brian Kelly is the nation’s top coach

Mark Richt won a national coach of the year award while Central Florida’s Scott Frost won a different one. Why no mention of Brian Kelly? Honestly, the Notre Dame head coach likely would have won the award if his Fighting Irish didn’t fold in the final month of action.

Starting with the Miami loss, his team looked to fall off considerably in the final three games. The Irish were dismantled by the Hurricanes, narrowly beat Navy at home and then lost by 18 to Stanford to close out the regular season. Those three games are likely the reason he didn’t win coach of the year.

I know what you’re thinking. What’s so impressive about an 8-1 Notre Dame team that would have made Kelly a lock to win national coach of the year? Well, the Irish had just gone 4-8 the season before and Kelly was considered one of a handful of coaches who would have been lucky to make it through the season without losing his job.

Kelly silenced all his critics and put together a playoff-worthy campaign with his Irish and beat down some tough opponents such as Michigan State, USC and NC State. Kelly isn’t the nation’s top coach, but he was definitely in the discussion in 2017.