Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 NOV. 7, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI T he Notre Dame football team had a bye the weekend of Oct. 22, but seventh-year head coach Brian Kelly recorded maybe his top victory of the 2016 season the day prior. That's when Notre Dame direc- tor of athletics Jack Swarbrick told ESPN.com's Matt Fortuna that de- spite a 2-5 start to the 2016 campaign, Kelly's job status remained secure in 2016 and beyond. "Brian will lead this team out of the tunnel opening day next year," Swarbrick told ESPN.com Oct. 21, a week prior to the Irish resuming the season by hosting the Miami Hur- ricanes Oct. 29. Cynics will contend that "the dreaded vote of confidence" by the school's athletics director is generally the harbinger of a future ouster. While Swarbrick did acknowledge to ESPN.com that there is "great disappointment" about the precipi- tous fall in fortunes this year, he also noted that he is around the team reg- ularly — from practice, to training table, to having an office in the foot- ball complex — and has not seen any evidence of discord or severe cracks within the infrastructure. "I bear responsibility," Swarbrick said. "I'm ultimately responsible for our performance, so all of us are in this together … I get to see the program day in and day out and I continue to have great confidence in Brian and confidence in our future as a program … I think you really see what you've got in a coach with how they manage times like this, and I think he has done a great job of it." Entering the weekend of the Miami game, Kelly owned a 57-28 career record at Notre Dame for a .671 win- ning percentage. His 28 defeats are the second-most by a Fighting Irish coach, behind Lou Holtz's 30 in the 11 years he coached from 1986-96. Kelly directed Notre Dame to the BCS National Championship Game with a 12-0 regular season in 2012, but the Irish suffered a 42-14 loss to Alabama. Last year, his Fighting Irish were vying for a bid to the four-team College Football Playoff with a 10-1 start before losing in the regular-sea- son finale at Pac-12 champion Stan- ford on a field goal as time expired. The No. 4 finish in 2012 is the best by the Fighting Irish since 1994, while the No. 11 placement last year with a 10-3 mark is the third-best in that span, behind the No. 9 finish in 2005 with a 9-3 ledger. However, in 2016 Kelly is on the cusp of his worst season — he was 8-5 in 2010, 2011 and 2014 — with one more defeat despite starting the year No. 10 in the Associated Press poll. Moreover, none of the five defeats during the 2-5 start was to a team ranked in the polls at the end of Octo- ber, and the 38-35 loss at home Sept. 24 to Duke (0-3 in the ACC entering the Oct. 29 weekend) resulted in the fir- ing of third-year defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, an unprecedented in-season move at Notre Dame that has made this campaign so tumultuous. Also hurting Kelly this season were public perceptions that he was put- ting too much blame on his players and not enough on himself, although he has repeatedly stated that he and his staff need to coach much better. Swarbrick said such false impressions about Kelly placing the blame else- where occur during times of struggle. UNDER THE DOME VOTE OF CONFIDENCE Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick said Brian Kelly will lead the Irish in 2017 Swarbrick stated during the bye week that Kelly will return to coach Notre Dame in 2017. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA