Coaching the fabled Notre Dame program has always been a high-profile job, expectations for every coach that lead the football program will always be sky high. Although the Irish have not won a title since 1988, the job is still held in high regards as 247Sport named the position as the 9th most coveted head coaching job in the country.
Brad Crawford, who ranked the jobs for 247Sports, sees that “there might not be a brand stronger than Notre Dame in college football. Touchdown Jesus, South Bend, the gold helmets … you get it.” It very hard to argue against that, there are not many schools with the same tradition that Notre Dame sports.
The explanation of the ranking is something that we all know, but Crawford points out two reasons why the Notre Dame job gets the 9th spot. The “drawbacks here that other programs don’t have in the Top 10 is location and academics. The standards at Notre Dame are higher than most and Indiana isn’t exactly pumping out elite athletes annually. That’s why Brian Kelly has taken a nationwide approach to recruiting during his tenure.”
The national approach has worked, but not quite as well as Kelly would like. In the last 5 recruiting cycles, including the current one, the Irish will have signed just 2 instate players. Kelly has said the recruiting needs to go to another level to compete with the teams they need to beat to be among the best in the nation.
The Notre Dame head coaching job will always be one that comes with gigantic expectations and lots of scrutiny. It is not cut out for every coach, some of them just can’t handle what it means to be the Irish’s lead man. Kelly’s been at the helm for 10 years now and he’s helped bring back some respectability after the Bob Davie, Ty Willingham and Charlie Weis eras.