Ranking Brian Kelly’s 100 Notre Dame Wins: 10-1
Some are up for debate while others certainly aren’t.
Here they are: Brian Kelly’s 10 best wins at Notre Dame…
10. USC 2018:24-17 win wasn’t over a great USC team by any means but it did conclude a perfect regular season that sent Kelly and Notre Dame to their first College Football Playoff appearance.
9. USC 2010: 20-16 win at The Coliseum was a turning point for the program in Kelly’s first year as the Irish hadn’t won on the road against their biggest rival since 2000 and had rarely even been competitive against them in the previous decade.
8. Utah 2010: 28-3 win over No. 14 Utah came as a surprise as Notre Dame entered just 4-5 on the year and would go on to win four straight to conclude Kelly’s first year after things were looking incredibly bleak entering November. Turned the tide of the program in the years to come.
7. USC 2012: 22-13 win came two years after ending the losing streak against the Trojans. This USC squad wasn’t at the level of the Pete Carroll led teams but a win over them secured No. 1 Notre Dame’s spot in the national championship game.
6. USC 2017: 49-14 beat-down of the Trojans moved the Irish to 6-1 and came against a team some would push for being deserving of a College Football Playoff appearance a couple short months later.
5. Stanford 2012: 20-13 OT win came with a goal line stand for the ages on a day College Gameday returned to town for the first time in seven years. The win helped propel Notre Dame to their 12-0 regular season.
4. Michigan State 2013: 17-13 win would be the only game MSU lost all year as the Spartans would finish 13-1, Big Ten and Rose Bowl Champions and in the national championship had it not been for the win Kelly and Notre Dame pulled off against them in September.
3. 2018 Michigan: 24-17 never seemed to do this game justice as Notre Dame dominated roughly 54 of the 60 minutes in a game large chunks of the national media seemed to want to pretend didn’t happen by the time November rolled around. The win was the first in what would end up being a 12-0 regular season for Notre Dame and Brian Kelly.
2. 2012 Oklahoma: 30-13 victory in a road game seemingly nobody gave Kelly’s Irish a chance. It was far from a perfect Oklahoma team by any stretch of the imagination but this game was seen as Kelly and Notre Dame’s coming out party in a year they’d finish by playing in the national championship game.
NUMBER 1: 2020 CLEMSON — 47-40 2 OT
Is this one even a question? Kelly and Notre Dame ended Clemson’s 36 game regular season winning streak in one of the most exciting games you’ll ever see. Whether or not the Irish do it again in the 2020 ACC Championship Game hardly matters as this victory showed just how far Notre Dame has come under Kelly since the 30-3 massacre at the hands of Clemson in the 2018 Cotton Bowl.