re: Could Brian Kelly retain his job while Charlie Strong is led to pasture

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In Kelly's 7 seasons, ND has finished ranked in the Top 10 only once and gone 0-2 (both by 2+ TDs) in major bowl games. They have had 4 seasons (2010, 2011, 2014, 2016) with 5+ losses and another season with 4 losses (2013). There are at least 20-25 Power 5 conference programs where such a 7-year record would be justifiably judged to be unacceptable. Why should it be acceptable at ND? -- With a loss Saturday at USC, Brian Kelly will have lost the most games of any Irish coach in history (31). The next highest number of losses for an ND coach is Lou Holtz, who lost the last game of his 11-year tenure to USC for his 30th loss; by his 30th loss, he had won 100 games, while Kelly has won 59. -- In ND's 2016 season, the Irish failed to win back-to-back games in a full season for the first time since 1960. (Joe Kuharich's 2nd year as ND coach) -- On October 27, 2012, Notre Dame beat #8 Oklahoma in Norman 30-13. The Irish under Kelly have gone 0W-9L vs. teams ranked in the Top 12 since then, a span of over 4 years. "But Kelly took ND to the national championship game in 2012...": ...where they were blown off the field 42-14 by Alabama. Yes, 'Bama was a better team, but not "Game over in the first quarter" better. In 40 years of watching ND football, I have never seen a Notre Dame team more unprepared for a big game. Perhaps if Kelly hadn't spent so much of the previous 5 weeks trying to secure an NFL job (which caused no small amount of distress to his assistants) and instead spent it preparing his team, ND would have had a much more respectable showing. Instead, they were embarrassed to such an extent that the mention of "Notre Dame" and "playoffs/national championship" still elicits giggles from college football fans. "ND's coming off a great season." They went 10W-3L, losing to the 3 Top 10 teams they played; their best win was over #18 Navy; they had to come from behind in the final minutes to beat (sub-.500) Virginia and Temple, and had to hold on for dear life vs. (also sub-.500) Boston College. They were blown out of their second major bowl under Kelly, the Fiesta, by Ohio State 44-28. "Notre Dame can't win because of their academic restrictions": During Kelly's tenure (2010-2016), Stanford - who has higher academic entrance requirements than ND and nowhere near the football tradition or national following - has gone 74W-18L to Kelly's 59W-30L (soon to be 59W-31L) at ND, finished in the Top 10 four times (to ND's one) and won 3 major bowls (2 Rose, 1 Orange) to ND's zero. Stanford as also beaten ND 5 out of 7 times in Kelly's tenure. "Yeah, but Kelly's got a winning record against USC..." ND has gone 4W-2L under Kelly; however, 2 of those wins came against USC's backup QB (2010 and 2012) and the other 2 came against an interim coach (Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkesian were fired in-season during the 2013 and 2015 seasons, respectively). The two times were USC was not forced to start their backup QB nor playing under an interim coach, USC won handily: 31-17 at ND in 2011, and 49-14 in 2014. USC has their starting QB healthy and a fully employed coach this week, so look for a USC blowout of ND. "OK, but he's done a great job compared to the guys who preceded him...." Since when are Bob Davie, Ty Willingham, and Charlie Weis the benchmark by which to judge a Notre Dame football coach's success or failure? But since it's been brought up, here is ND's record vs. Top 25 and Top 10 opponents going back to Ara Parseghian: (assuming a) USC (currently #12) beats ND this coming weekend (the Trojans are 17-point favorites) and b) USC and Stanford end the 2016 season ranked): vs. Top 20/25 (rank on gameday) 1. Devine: 17-10 .630 2. Holtz: 33-20-2 .618 3. Parseghian: 14-11-3 .554 4. Willingham: 7-8 .467 5. Kelly: 11-14 .440 6. Faust: 8-14 .364 7. Davie: 6-15 .286 8. Weis: 4-12 .250 vs. Top 20/25 (rank on end of season poll) 1. Holtz: 28-23-2 .547 2. Devine: 13-11 .542 3. Parseghian: 10-13-3 .442 4. Willingham: 8-9 .471 5. Kelly: 8-18 .308 6. Davie: 5-14 .263 7. Faust: 4-17 .190 8. Weis: 1-12 .077 (leaving out the possibility that USC will finish the season in the Top 10): vs. Top 10 (rank on gameday) 1. Devine: 10-7 .588 2. Holtz: 21-15-1 .581 3. Parseghian: 10-9-3 .523 4. Faust: 4-6 .400 5. Willingham: 3-5 .375 6. Kelly: 2-5 .286 7. Davie: 1-7 .125 8. Weis: 1-8 .111 vs. Top 10 (rank at end of season poll) 1. Holtz: 15-17-1 .470 2. Parseghian: 7-9-3 .447 3. Devine: 5-7 .417 4. Willingham: 2-4 .333 5. Faust: 2-9 .182 5. Kelly: 2-9 .182 7. Davie: 0-8 .000 7. Weis: 0-8 .000 Yes, that's right, Kelly has a worse record against ranked teams than Ty Willingham. So ND doesn't have multiple Top 10 finishes, any major bowl wins, nor a decent record vs. ranked teams under Kelly. What HAVE the last 7 seasons given us? --FieldTurf (plastic grass) in Notre Dame Stadium (lobbied for by Kelly) --JumboTron in Notre Dame Stadium, debuting in 2017 (lobbied for by Kelly) --Awful piped-in rock music in Notre Dame Stadium --Hideous annual "Shamrock Series" uniforms --One of the worst strength & conditioning programs in major college football Gee, thanks Brian and Jack (Swarbrick, ND's athletic director), you've given us so much.

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