What can we expect in year 1 under Kelly?

Culture changes don't happen overnight, and Kelly's culture is a complete 180 from O's culture. It took him until year 3 until he really got ND going, took year 3 and CMU to get to 9 wins with a MAC title and year 2 at Cincy to start winning the Big East. Even Saban's first year at Bama was kind of a weed out year where they went 6-6 and the team appeared to quit by the end (losing to ULM). Having said that, times are obviously different now with Early Signing and the transfer portal, so theoretically it should be a lot easier to transition into a job like this.


Looking at the schedule now (subject to change if OU and Texas do end up joining next year), FSU in NOLA will be a great first test for him. Southern is a rent-a-win (should be a good day for BR tailgating though). Then MSU is our first conference game, luckily it's at home, it's a good spot to cut your teeth in SEC play imo. Then New Mexico is another rent-a-win. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a 4-0 start. Then you go into Jordan Hare where the meat grinder really starts. We also get Tennessee from the East next year.

I think 8-4 would be an acceptable year 1 for him as players adjust to him and he adjusts to the new players, weeds out the players that can't handle a stricter coach, and adjusts to the new surroundings. Year 2 and forward I expect to take a step up, stay in the SEC/CFP race until the end.