We all knew that Notre Dame Football’s head coach Brian Kelly was well respected in the coaching community, what he hasn’t always had was the media’s backing. Well, yesterday CBS Sports released their Top 25 coaches in college football and Kelly ranked 5th among his peers.
The move into the Top 5 for Kelly is a nice coup, after he placed 7th in last years rankings. Tom Fornelli, who put together the rankings for CBS, mentions the success among Irish greats that Kelly has achieved since taking over the program in 2010. If the wins in 2012-13 were not vacated, would give Kelly “92 wins in South Bend. That’s 13 fewer than Rockne’s 105, which means there’s a good chance Kelly will pass Rockne during the 2021 season,” as Fornelli points out, Kelly is close to putting his name amongst former Irish greats.
Kelly’s job of getting the Notre Dame program back to national respectability has been very refreshing. He has brought the stability back to South Bend, after Lou Holtz hung up his coaching whistle, the Irish have had issues with their lead men. Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis each hover around a .500 record, not good enough for the storied program. The most successful era’s in Notre Dame history saw the head coach stay at the position for more than 10 years. Kelly has reached that and it’s clear his time has been a success, even with the vacated wins.
Kelly successor Weis didn’t help him, as he inherited a program that had gone 16-21 in the previous 2 seasons. “He (Kelly) took over a program that found itself on the brink of becoming a historical relic and has restored the shine to the golden dome,” Fornelli explained. Although Kelly has yet to have that major breakthrough, if he continues with this track, the Irish will get that win that propels them into the super elite status of college football.