Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Under the Dome Charting The Irish The 200 Club Head coach Brian Kelly joined an elite group of college football coaches when Notre Dame beat Temple 28‑6 in the season opener Aug. 31. He is one of 10 coaches who reached the 200-win mark in 280 games or less and one five coaches who did it in 270 or less. History tells us that's not necessarily a good thing for Kelly's longevity. Of the four coaches to reach 200 in fewer games, only Joe Paterno remained a head coach five years after he hit the milestone. Paterno stuck around another 24 seasons and won a total of 409 games, although some of those have been stricken from the NCAA record books. The other three coaches all finished their careers with 255 wins or less. Based on Kelly's current winning percentage, the coach is on track to win 10 games per year as long as he remains in the game. The 51-year-old Kelly would need 21 more seasons at that pace to catch Paterno as college football's all-time wins leader. First 200 Wins Wins/Total Games Winning Pct. Career Totals Wins/Total Games Winning Pct. Joe Paterno Tom Osborne 200/246 .813 409/548.746 200/249 .803 255/307.836 Bo Schembechler 200/262 .763 234/307.762 Woody Hayes 200/268 .746 238/320.743 Brian Kelly 200/270.777 End Of An Era ??? This year's Temple opener marked the first time in Brian Kelly's 23 years as a head coach that he did not call the plays. Offensive coordinator/quarter‑ backs coach Chuck Martin did the honors … for the most part. "I called all of the touchdowns; Chuck called all of the stalled drives," Kelly deadpanned. In reality, Kelly said procedurally the flow went well with Martin. He par‑ ticularly liked the third series when Notre Dame faced second-and-15 and managed it down to third-and-one with a running play and forcing an offside penalty, before getting the first down. "An inexperienced play caller, at second-and-15, now let's chuck it — and