Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly Feels The Heat

November 13, 1993.

That was the last time Notre Dame Football was truly Notre Dame Football.

For the last 18 autumns the Irish have only been the Irish in name alone. Long gone is the football identity in South Bend that was carved out by the men portrayed in Grantland Rice’s legendary piece in the New York Herald Tribune.

Head coach Brian Kelly isn’t 3 games into his sophomore season on the sidelines at Notre Dame Stadium and is already on the hot seat. Meltdown losses to South Florida and Michigan have taken all the air out of a Notre Dame team that was ranked as high as 16^th coming into the season. Kelly, the 4^th Irish coach in the last 10 years, is traveling a similar path to dismissal as the one taken by Messrs Davie, Willingham & Weis. All 3 of Kelly’s predecessors found themselves out of a job when they failed to win games and challenge for the school’s first National Title since 1988.

During training camp Kelly acknowledged the high profile nature of his job in South Bend, “I wouldn’t say Notre Dame is the best job in the country. There’s just no other job like it. No matter where you go from coast to coast, it’s not regional. Bob Stoops would probably be recognized anywhere because of the notoriety, but I don’t know if anyone is going to know him in Manhattan. I’m in Manhattan, and people recognize me. I’m in Orange County, and people recognize me. I don’t know if it’s like that anywhere else.”

The schedule strength at Notre Dame has always been powerful, and even though changes were made under Charlie Weiss to level the playing field the Irish remain an Independent and their schedule remains daunting. In a moment of pure frustration Kelly told the Chicago Sun-Times earlier in the week, “We’ve made so many mistakes against two pretty tough teams coming out. Again, as you see the schedule, Ohio State is playing Toledo. I mean, teams are playing easy games early on in the schedule. We don’t get that luxury. We have to go play in front of 115,000 fans. Those mistakes are more glaring against opponents that are physically pretty good, as well.”

There is zero letup in the Irish schedule as Notre Dame welcomes their ancient rival Michigan State to South Bend this weekend. Last season’s game in East Lansing was an all-time classic. Rather than attempt a 46-yard field goal in overtime Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio called for a fake punt which caught the Irish completely off guard as Spartan holder Aaron Bates hit tight end Charles Grant with the game winning touchdown.

At 0-2 Brian Kelly is feeling the heat like no time in his recent coaching history. If Notre Dame falls to Michigan State again this Saturday dropping their record to 0-3 Kelly can expect the thermostat in his office to explode.