It is a fair assessment to add Notre Dame’s head coach Brian Kelly in a conversation for one of the best coaches in the nation. Although he has yet to win a championship in South Bend, he thinks they’ll break through soon, his run as the Irish leader has gone well.
Today, Brad Crawford of 247Sports, named Kelly the 10th best coach in all of college football. Although the Irish haven’t had a chance to be crowned champs since losing to Alabama in the BCS Championship game in 2012, his tenure has seen 92 wins, 5 bowl wins, and six Top 25 finishes. Yes, 21 of those wins have been vacated, but its still impressive none the less.
Crawford had an interesting assessment of Kelly, as he “isn’t often mentioned as one of the nation’s elite, but his four Top 15 finishes since the start of the 2015 campaign proves otherwise.” Only a few schools can beat that, as Kelly has preached the need for winning consistently to take that next step for the program.
The consistency is coming, the last three years a combined 33-6 record indicates the Irish are well on their way to being a top tier program. The list is clearly subjective, I think Kelly is better than Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher and Florida’s Dan Mullen, but getting placed inside the top 10 is a very good sign for the Irish.