The Irish have been close to breaking their championship drought, having had opportunities in 2013 and 2018, to end the misery of waiting since 1988 to be crowned college footballs top team. Although those chances slipped by Notre Dame, Brian Kelly sees the Irish as getting close to breaking though.
Yesterday, Kelly joined 247Sports Social Distance podcast and was asked about the difficulty of getting to the top of the mountain. When he was asked about being in the top tier of teams, Kelly responded by saying “the final step is to continue, you have to do this on a consistent basis. Three double digit win seasons, four out of five, is beginning to show signs of that consistency, but I think that that has to come first. Consistently double digits wins puts you then in a position where you can recruit at the highest level. Then I think the final stage of that is you have to break through and win one of those games. We’ve been in a number of those and I’ve led our team to a number of those games and we’ve quite frankly not broken though. We will…. We’ll break though at Notre Dame. We’ve got a great foundation, great coaches, great support. Our university has given us the support necessary. We got to continue to recruit at the highest level and win some of those battles that are out there.”
#NotreDame head coach Brian Kelly on breaking through to get back to a National Championship.
"We got to continue to recruit at the highest level and win some of those battles that are out there, and you know where they are."
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— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) May 1, 2020
He finished off by saying the Irish are knocking at the door, but they have to win some of the big ones. Kelly is spot on with his assessment of the program, consistency being the key to improved recruiting and then getting the breakthrough win. They are just behind the elite of elite teams, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and to get into the upper echelon with those teams you do have to knock the door down.
Just getting there doesn’t do much, look at Florida State, Michigan State, Washington, their appearances in the College Football Playoff’s were one offs, much like the Irish’s. The door has to be broken down to get to that elite level. Notre Dame is right on the cusp of belonging with those teams, they just need to have that one breakthrough we’ve all been waiting for.