SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Brian Kelly is entering his sixth season as Notre Dame coach, just the seventh in the program’s long and storied history to make it that far.
That doesn’t mean the 53-year-old coach is feeling anywhere near settled, not with a 45-20 record at Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish not yet back among college football’s elite – their 2012 run to the national title game notwithstanding. He is confident the Irish have more talent this year than that squad three years ago, but he isn’t quite comfortable.
“I don’t know if you ever get comfortable in the seat at Notre Dame. Comfortable wouldn’t be a word that I would use,” he said. “I think what I would probably say is that the picture is a lot clearer in the sense that I really know where our strengths and weaknesses are as a program.”
The other Irish coaches in the group are Knute Rockne (13 seasons), Frank Leahy, Ara Paresghian and Lou Holtz (11 seasons each), Elmer Layden (seven seasons) and Dan Devine (six seasons). Kelly has the lowest winning percentage of that group at .692, and he and Layden (1934-40) are the only coaches in the group without a national title.
When Kelly was introduced as Notre Dame coach, he said he didn’t have a five-year plan, he had a five-minute plan. He also said he would restore Notre Dame’s traditions.