Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Well respected ESPN insider Chris Mortensen, who interestingly shares the same business agent as Kelly, even took to the airwaves to explain interest in Kelly's services goes well beyond the Florida job. "There's NFL teams that are looking at Brian Kelly, that see him as a CEO type with strengths on the offensive side of the football," Mortensen said on the SVP & Russillo radio show. "Notre Dame, as great as the tradition and the institution is, still has some restrictions. There's still academic standards that are above and beyond the norm. So [Brian Kelly] is a name I think people are looking at." From the demands of recruiting and winning at the top academic football school in the country, to playing a na- tional schedule, to satisfying an Irish old guard that still believes 91-year-old Ara Parseghian or 77-year-old Lou Holtz are better coaching options than Kelly, the pressures at Notre Dame are endless and careers are typically short. Remarkably, Parseghian and Holtz are the only two of 10 Irish coaches since 1953 who lasted more than six years on the job, and even those two national championship winners — both of whom survived 11 years here — said the pres- sure to win took a heavy toll. Parseghian said he was "physically exhausted and mentally drained" when he stepped down in 1974 at the age of 51 with two national titles. Holtz, who led Notre Dame to its last championship in 1988, said there was no joy in coaching the Irish, only sleepless nights and worry. "You left every game saying, 'Whoa, thank goodness that's over,'" said Holtz, who left Notre Dame in 1996 at the age of 59. "It begins to wear on you." Brian Kelly is 53. When it comes to coaching and ca- reer moves, timing is everything, and Kelly has never been one to stand still, always looking for a fresh challenge and the next rung on the career ladder. Hours after Notre Dame's appearance in the 2012 national championship game, Kelly hopped a flight to Philadelphia for an interview with the NFL's Eagles. These rumors and speculation on Kelly's future are just part of the job description at Notre Dame. But it is interesting that a coach who has only one win in his last seven games against top-20 teams continues to pull so much outside interest. Make no mistake, Kelly recruits well and typically does more with less in many respects. And with all the inju- ries and suspensions this season, a case could be made that his team is actu- ally exceeding realistic expectations. But since there is no such word as "over- achievement" in Irish football vernacu- lar, circumstances never get in the way of expectations. Other than rumor and speculation, there is nothing to suggest that Kelly is going anywhere after this season. His contract runs through 2017. But with outside interest building and program pressure mounting, don't be too surprised if speculation met reality during this "Silly Stove" season. ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com