re: Who is Notre Dames's next coach?

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Chip Kelly will be the coach at USC

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USC will not have an opening this year.

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USC will not have an opening this year.

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fight on helton!

Hurricane Matthew

Urban Meyer

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They kept Charlie Weis after a 3-9 season when his biggest accomplishment was almost beating USC in 2005.

Kelly has never won less than 8 games. He will be back next year. Even if they go 4-8.

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As UFFan said, that was Weis' third year, not his seventh. If you look at it, Kelly's results aren't too different from Weis'. Each had a blowout loss in a major bowl to an SEC team. Each lost soundly to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. Each had/is having a terrible season (this one for Kelly, 3-9 for Weis). And the rest of their seasons (four for Kelly, two for Weis) were "meh." To be fair, Kelly's similar results were/are still better (blowout bowl loss was NCG, not Sugar Bowl; his "meh" seasons are four/five losses, not six; he will prob win more than three games this year) but it's not like he's producing some juggernaut. Kelly's lost to the following teams in South Bend in his tenure: Tulsa, Duke, (5-7) Northwestern, (5-7) USF. Including this season, ND will have finished outside the top 15 five out of seven times (more than 70 percent of his seven seasons). Including this season, ND will have finished unranked in four of his seasons, Yes, three months from now, more than half of Kelly's seasons in South Bend will have resulted in ND finishing UNRANKED. He's about to miss a bowl with potentially the No. 1 pick in the draft starting at QB.

He is the best of the bunch since Holtz (not counting O'Leary). No, he is not good enough. Before people say, "you can't get talent at ND", ND had seven guys taken in the first four rounds of the NFL Draft last year. I believe that was more than any program except Ohio State (more than Bama, LSU, Texas, Florida State, USC...). ND would have had two top-10 picks and three first-round picks if Jaylon Smith didn't destroy his knee in the Fiesta Bowl. ND can still get talent. Even if it's not enough to consistently compete for an NC, it's enough that a really good coach should easily be able to finish ranked more than 50% of the time. That's not even going into many of his antics (which I could overlook more if he was getting results, but he's not).

Who to replace him with? That I don't know. Other than Meyer, Saban or Harbaugh (none of whom are coming to ND) there are no sure things. Everyone's a risk. But that doesn't mean ND should accept (by its standards) mediocrity. Nick Saban was FAR from a sure thing when he was hired at LSU. Maybe ND hires a guy like PJ Fleck or Fuente or Herman and he's the next Nick Saban or Urban Meyer. Or maybe he's the next Brady Hoke. Maybe he's the next Chris Petersen. Or maybe he's the next Dan Hawkins. The risk doesn't mean ND shouldn't try, though.

The one option that I think is a) semi-realistic; and b) kind of the best blend of a low risk (unlike a Fleck, Herman or Fuente) while also potentially - though not certainly and perhaps unlikely - a really high reward is Bob Stoops. Stoops is Catholic and from the Midwest. He's not on the hot seat at OU, but I think there's a bit of unrest within the fanbase there (sorta like how there was with Richt at UGA for awhile until he was ultimately let go). I think he might need and/or want a re-charge/change of pace at a different institution and might be looking to get out of Norman. If so, he could be a nice fit at ND. ND has come knocking for Stoops in the past, but that was when he was more "comfortable" at OU than I think he is now. He might be willing to make the jump now.

As for very unlikely, but "hey, a guy can dream":

Jon Gruden: He graduated HS in South Bend; his dad was an assistant at ND. There are signs he considered the Tennessee job back in 2012. Maybe he has an itch to get back into coaching.

John Harbaugh: Catholic, from the Midwest and most of his family currently resides there. And ND just agreed to more games against Michigan, starting in 2018. Maybe he would love the challenge of taking on his brother. And if the Ravens miss the playoffs for the second year in a row, his seat could be getting warm. Of course, even if he does get fired, some other NFL team would pick him up in a heartbeat, but maybe he's looking for a bit more stability that I think the college game provides.

tl;dr - Kelly's not the answer. I don't know who ND would get to replace him. Maybe Fleck, maybe Fuente, maybe Herman, maybe Stoops. Regardless of who it is, it's worth the risk since Kelly's not the answer.

Shaw wins at a school with very tough academics and mediocre football tradition.

With that being said he's not a person you'd hire if you want to see exciting, innovative football. But neither is Nick Saban.

Agreed. I always found the talk about Helton being fired after 1 year to be comical. Especially now that Southern Cal is doing better.

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Agree, they'll tell you it's because ND can't get talent. Meanwhile, as I said, ND had more guys drafted last year in the first four rounds than any program except Ohio State. Michael Floyd, Kyle Rudolph, Tyler Eifert, Harrison Smith, Zack Martin, Theo Riddick, Stephon Tuitt, Jaylon Smith, DeShone Kizer, Manti Te'o, Ronnie Stanley, Will Fuller... just some of the guys that have played for BK at ND.

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I laid it out over on MSB using the 2011 roster as a sample; that team was loaded, and we did nothing with it. I've looked it up in the past, and we are either at #5 or #6 in the number of players drafted over the last five years - behind, IIRC, Alabama, OSU, FSU, and LSU and ahead of everyone else (USC, UGA, Clemson, etc, etc). The idea that ND can't get talent is bullshite.

I don't think LSU fans realize that in the 2014 Music City Bowl, we had nearly as much talent as they did. The fact that we were in that bowl was just as much of an indictment of Kelly as it was Miles.

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What's funny is that Kelly is basically the opposite of Miles (which maybe explains why I've seen more than a couple of posters here seriously mention they want to go after BK). Loves the spread offensively and to chuck the ball all over the yard, while not caring much for either a defense or a strong running game.

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LSU fans would fricking hate Kelly. Elite coaches have absolutely owned his arse, and the SEC West would humiliate him.

Brian Kelly

Charlie Strong