Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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42-14 beatdown from Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game. 2012: THE YEAR THAT KEEPS IT TOGETHER It is that magical four-month honey- moon from Sept. 1, 2012, until Jan. 7, 2013, that keeps the marriage between Notre Dame and Kelly worth holding together. It is their version of "we'll always have Paris," with apologies to Humphrey Bogart. There are very few coaches in college football history who have achieved what Kelly did from 2009-12. He took once-moribund Cincinnati to a 12-0 regular season and one long Texas field goal away from playing Alabama in the BCS National Cham- pionship Game. Three years later, he was National Coach of the Year again with another 12-0 regular season at a place that was mainly surviving on the perfume of a vanished flower. A popular response is "he was just lucky and got so many breaks in 2012. That was a fluke." However, that's not any more fair to say than for Kelly to lament that the 2014 team is only a few plays from be- ing 11-1 or no worse than 10-2 instead of 7-5. Both the 12-0 and 7-5 teams earned their final mark. There are about 170- 180 plays in a football game, special teams included, and "one or two plays away," which most any team can talk about, are predicated on what you did in the other 168 or so. Notre Dame might believe it is fortu- nate to have one of those rare coaches who pulled off a regular season 12-0 achievement in four years at different stops. Because Kelly has such a track record, it is easier to believe that he is capable of achieving greatness again than to do another search in which an upgrade will be difficult from the one Kelly offered in December 2009. Conversely, at the end of year five, no one wants to hear alibis about why you are outside the top 25 again. By year five, you own everything in the program. Too many injuries on defense? That's on the staff in 2012 for signing only two linemen (Jarron Jones and Sheldon Day), one linebacker (Romeo Okwara, after signing only one the previous year, too, in Jarrett Grace) and zero cornerbacks, until slot re- ceiver/running back KeiVarae Russell was moved there. It signed only two defensive linemen in 2013, too. Offensively, if you haven't estab- lished a consistent physicality after five years, it's probably not going to occur in year six. The identity as a pass-first coach remains. Every year special teams is expected to have an upgrade, and every season it is mostly a non-factor and often a li- ability. That's on the staff, too. Quarterback problems? That's on the staff. Why did five-star recruit Dayne Crist regress, as did Golson in the second half of 2014? Why could Andrew Hendrix not at least be ser- viceable in relief in 2013? Tommy Rees had to be the answer most of the time from 2010-13 because no one else was. You can talk about "the next recruit" at quarterback as the answer only so many times. Kelly began his first two seasons 16-10, had the 12-1 finish in year three,