Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/638727
THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI F rom the outset of the Brian Kelly re- gime at Notre Dame, I found myself most often comparing him to former Texas boss Mack Brown (1998-2013). Both were re- nowned program builders — Brown a t Tu l a n e a n d North Carolina, and Kelly at Cen- tral Michigan and Cincinnati. Brown was 20-3 his last two years with t h e Ta r H e e l s , and Kelly 23-3 his last two with the Bearcats. Both were well polished in public relations, a signifi- cant asset when taking over heav- ily publicized and scrutinized pro- grams that had been woefully in- consistent and underachieving. • In the 14 years (1984-97) prior to Brown's arrival, Texas, under three dif- ferent coaches, was 92-68-3. The Long- horns had no major bowl victories (0-3) and their best finish was No. 11 in 1990 after getting slaughtered 46-3 by Miami in the Cotton Bowl to nullify a fine 10-1 regular season. • In the 13 years (1997-2009) prior to Kelly's arrival, Notre Dame, under three coaches, had a virtually identical 91-68 ledger, with no major bowl vic- tories (0-3) and one top-10 finish at No. 9 in 2005 with a 9-3 mark. Now comes the interesting aspect. In Brown's first s i x s e a s o n s a t Texas (1998-2003), he became an es- tablished upgrade o v e r t h e t h re e predecessors who were fired. He had produced a strong 59-18 record … but s o m e t h i n g w a s missing. Critics noted that Brown had yet to even win a con- ference title dur- ing his career and hadn't won one of the five major bowls. Above all, he was "a tier below" the upper echelon coaches, most notably Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. Over the course of five years, Stoops' Sooners had won five straight over the Longhorns, including 63-14 and 65-13 annihilations in 2000 and 2003, respec- tively. Six Down For Brian Kelly … Six To Go? Kelly's career path to this point is comparable to that of former Texas head coach Mack Brown, but the jury is still out on whether or not he can experience the same kind of breakthrough moving forward. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND