Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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46 JANUARY 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED I n a university-produced video released Dec. 2, Notre Dame vice president/direc- tor of athletics Jack Swarbrick reiterated his Oct. 21 stance that Brian Kelly will return for an eighth season as the Fighting Irish head coach in 2017. That elicited a wide range of emotions, including deroga- tory newspaper ads from the website Notre Dame Nation in which its enmity transferred from Kelly to Swarbrick for being complicit in the accep- tance of football mediocrity, es- pecially after a 4-8 train-wreck season. S w arb rick w isely didn 't paint himself into a corner by publicly declaring eight, nine or 10 wins as a 2017 benchmark for Kelly. The external fear is that Kelly is mainly a 9-4/8-5 type of coach. Yet he has produced magical regular seasons, like he did at Notre Dame in 2012 and at Cincinnati in 2009. Those count for a lot. More alarming now is how an 8-4 regular season next year will be trumpeted as "improvement and progress." Get to 9-3, and Kelly will be up for Coach of the Year. The problem is it takes you back to status quo, meaning that 9-3 once upon a time used to be a valley at Notre Dame, but is now a celebrated achievement. Whatever happened to the stated goal of "closing the gap" against the Alabamas and Ohio States of the world? Unfortunately, that gulf has widened in every aspect. With his .656 career winning per- centage at Notre Dame (59-31), Kelly is in "no man's land." Over the past 40 years, Kelly falls right between national title coaches Dan Devine (.764) and Lou Holtz (.765), and his three axed predeces- sors Bob Davie (.583), Tyrone Will- ingham (.583) and Charlie Weis (.564). Kelly is a proven winner but has not been good enough to categorize with the esteemed .750 standard, but just good enough to fear parting ways, knowing that the Irish could do worse in the hiring process. In the same way many Notre Dame fans exaggerate "the Irish football team is dying and should join the Ivy League" mentality, Swarbrick was equal in the hyperbole when refer- ring to the 10-3 season in 2015 as one of the best coaching jobs he's seen in 35 years. Yes, there were injuries in 2015, but most of the talent replacing those players was equal if not superior (a compliment to Kelly and his staff). There was not a single victory on the 2015 slate in which Notre Dame had the lesser personnel (against 3-9 foes UMass, Georgia Tech, Boston College and Wake Forest, 4-8 Vir- ginia, 5-7 Texas, 8-5 Pitt, 11-2 Navy, 10-4 Temple and 8-6 USC), and not one dramatic upset was produced. In the last four years, Notre Dame is 2-8 versus teams ranked in the top 20 at the time of the game, with one of the wins com- ing against a Georgia Tech team that finished 3-9. In that same four years (2013-16), it is a pedestrian 20-19 overall versus Power Five programs, which de- fines mediocrity over the long range. Swarbrick also main- tained that it is harder to win now than it was in 1988. Okay, let's talk about the 12-0, national champi- onship 1988 season then. Third-year coach Holtz had to replace his entire of- fensive line, his entire de- fensive line (not including National Defensive Player of the Year John Foley's career ending with an injury in the preseason), Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown and star pass rusher Cedric Figaro; had a quarterback with a career 42-percent completion rate; and had to defeat four teams that finished in the top 10, including defending national cham- pion Miami, Big Ten/Rose Bowl champ Michigan and 10-0 Pac-10 champ USC, while suspending his top rusher and receiver in the latter contest. That's not easy, either. And he did that while making four staff replacements after taking the Irish to their first major bowl in seven years and finishing 8-4 the pre- vious season. Oh, and the next year (1989) while playing the nation's No. 1 schedule (the Irish defeated seven teams in the top 18 of the final Associated Press poll), Notre Dame was 12-1 — after suspending its top linebacker (Michael Stonebreaker), top running back (Tony Brooks) and staring de- fensive tackle (George Williams), while losing several other premier leaders. You are either a program or you're not. Let's not mitigate the past to jus- tify the present maladies. ✦ Brian Kelly Is In 'No Man's Land' Entering 2017 THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI Senior Editor Lou Somogyi has been at Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 1985. He can be reached at lsomogyi@blueandgold.com On Dec. 2, director of athletics Jack Swarbrick (right) reiterated that Kelly would be returning as head football coach for the 2017 season. PHOTOS BY JOE RAYMOND COACHING MOVES Just before Blue & Gold Illustrated went to press Dec. 13, news was breaking on changes within the staff: • Sports Illustrated reported that 2015-16 Notre Dame offensive coordinator/quarter- backs coach Mike Sanford is "expected to be" hired as the head coach at Western Kentucky. • FOX Sports reported that Wake Forest de- fensive coordinator Mike Elko will interview for the same job at Notre Dame. • Tight ends coach/special teams coordina- tor Scott Booker was fired. The new coaching hires will be in the next edition of BGI (published the week of Jan. 14). For daily updates, check out BlueandGold.com.