Kelly Using the Notre Dame Education as a Recruiting Tool

Brian Kelly joined Colin Cowherd and spoke on a variety of topics, including finding the right academic and athletic recruiting fits.

There has always been the idea that the academic minded schools can’t compete with others due to the high entrance standards, which holds them back in recruiting. Honestly, that argument doesn’t hold much water at all, as Stanford has won the Directors Cup (awarded to the school who have the most successful overall athletic programs) pretty much every year of its existence.

Today, Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly joined Colin Cowherd on his program “The Herd” and covered a variety of topics, one of them being the difficulty of having to be more academically minded when recruiting high level athletes. Kelly’s response was very telling on how he handles mixing academics with recruiting, the recruit needs to “understand the value of that education and what a Notre Dame degree will do for them 40 years down the road… so, we have to be able to go from Washington state to Washington, DC, to find those young men that understand the 4 for 40, four years in 40 years. In other words, that this degree is going to give you an opportunity to open doors for 40 years. Then also have a chance to be in the playoffs and have a run at a championship.”

Finding the right mix is extremely important for Notre Dame recruits, having them understand the tradition of wearing the Blue and Gold, upholding the high standards, finding recruits that fit the mold is not easy. Kelly has done a remarkable job at it however, as his recruiting classes has been stellar since taking over the Irish program, his lowest national ranking being 17th in 2012 and last year, currently having a Top 5 class for the 2021 cycle. Blending academics and athletics on the recruiting trail has been an area that Kelly has excelled at.