Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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ican Conference champion, leading Cincinnati to back-to-back BCS bowls and then guiding Notre Dame to the BCS National Championship Game his third year — provides a benefit-of- the-doubt cushion. Another way to look at is it's like the married couple that has reached a cri- sis in their union, but neither partner has a feasible exit strategy (can't live with, yet can't live without). Maybe Kelly deep down was interested in the Florida Gators head coaching vacancy last month (filled by Colorado State's Jim McElwain), just like his coy flirta- tion with the Philadelphia Eagles in January 2013 that has prompted popu- lar speculation that the NFL is his de- sired future destination. Meanwhile, from Notre Dame's per- spective, would you believe this is the 12th time in the last 21 years (since 1994) it has finished a season with a minimum of five losses in a football season? It happened with Lou Holtz (6-5-1 in 1994), three times in five years with Davie (1997, 1999 and 2001), twice in three seasons with Willingham (2003 and 2004), each of the final three cam- paigns with Weis (2007-09) and now for the third time in Kelly's five years (2010, 2011 and 2014). How sobering is that? Just change the coach, and then it's rinse, lather and repeat. We like to say, "But this is Notre Dame! We expect championships!" The reality is this isn't a temporary glitch like 1956-63 or 1981-87. This has been going on for more than two de- cades. That's no longer a "slump" or a "cycle." It's a distressing long-term pattern. It hasn't even had a major bowl win in 21 years. That is today's Notre Dame. In those same aforementioned 21 seasons, only one time did Notre Dame finish with fewer than three defeats. That happened to occur also under Kelly's watch, the 12-0 start in 2012 that elevated the Irish to No. 1 for the first time in 19 seasons, prior to the FOUR WITH FOUR IN A ROW This was the fourth time Notre Dame lost its last four (at least) regular-season games. The final outcome was not good for those previous Irish coaches at the helm. • The first was 1963, when interim head coach Hugh Devore's Irish lost five in a row to finish 2-7. The next season under first-year head coach Ara Parseghian, Notre Dame went 9-1 and was seconds from a consensus national title. • In 1999, Notre Dame lost its last four for a 5-7 finish under head coach Bob Davie — but was 9-2 and earned a BCS bid the following season with an NCAA-record-low eight turnovers the entire season. (He would be fired a year later, though.) • In 2009, the Irish fell in their final four games under head coach Charlie Weis to finish 6-6, leading to the hiring of Brian Kelly about 10 days later. The heat is on Kelly next year to produce a major bowl/top-10 team in year six, and generally the Irish have rebounded well from poor finishes the year prior. One can even point to Holtz losing his final three games in 1987 by an 80-30 margin — and following with a national title. But that was year two for Holtz. — Lou Somogyi