Confident Kelly unfazed by Notre Dame hot seat

Associated Press

SOUTH BEND, IND.

The “new” version of Brian Kelly is fitter, more connected to his team, less connected to his offense, not as likely to unload on a player at practice and — for the first time in his career — entering a season in real danger of losing his job.

Notre Dame football broke in 2016, a dysfunctional 4-8 meltdown. Kelly knows as well as anybody that another season like that in 2017 could very well be his last as head coach of the Fighting Irish.

Faced with that reality, Kelly has essentially relaunched his program, overhauling his staff, redefining his role and implementing a new culture that almost makes it feel as if there was already a head coaching change in South Bend.

It can be argued that no seat in college football gets hotter than the one on which the head coach of Notre Dame sits. But no one believes in Kelly’s ability fix the Fighting Irish and deal with the weekly referendum that will be this football season more than ... Brian Kelly.

“I use the analogy, if you’re a really good hitter and you’re in the major leagues and you have one year when you fall below, you make a couple of adjustments, you take some BP, you have a good offseason and you start hitting again,” Kelly said in an interview with The Associated Press the day before spring practice ended for the Fighting Irish last month. “I’m going to hit again. I know how to coach.”

Kelly has reason to feel good about betting on himself. Last season was just the second in 27 years as a head coach in which he had a losing record. The other came in his first season rebuilding Central Michigan.

In his previous six seasons at Notre Dame, Kelly was 55-23 with an appearance in the national championship game — a season that has now been vacated by the NCAA for rules violations. That’s a long way from Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy, but there is no denying Kelly has been the most successful Notre Dame head coach since Lou Holtz left after the 1996 season.

After winning 10 games in 2015, Kelly was rewarded with a six-year contract extension. The Fighting Irish started the 2016 season ranked No. 10 with one of the best quarterback prospects in the country.

Then everything went wrong.

Kelly performed a post-season autopsy that included meeting for the first time in his career with every one of his players. Their message to him: “We [the coaches] weren’t hard enough on them. We weren’t demanding enough,” Kelly said. A lack of consistent leadership that started at the top left Notre Dame with a team that wilted when facing adversity and lost seven games decided in the fourth quarter.

In remaking his staff — a process that started last September when defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder was fired four games into the season — Kelly parted ways with some coaches who had worked with him going back to his first head coaching job at Division II Grand Valley.

Between on-field coaches, strength and conditioning coaches and support staff, Kelly made 14 offseason hires.

“How many times will [the administration] allow you to have three and a half million dollars in contracts after a 4-8 season?” Kelly said. “I think that was a pretty good referendum on how they feel I’m the right guy for the job.”