2016 Notre Dame Football Preview

2016 Notre Dame Football Preview

Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview

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4 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2016 FOOTBALL PREVIEW BY LOU SOMOGYI T here have been 15 f u l l - t i m e , n o n - i n - terim head coaches at Notre Dame since 1913, b e g i n n i n g w i t h J e s s e Harper when he also be- came the school's first athletics director. Now in 2016, Brian Kelly will become only the sixth to reach his seventh season as the head coach, and the first since Lou Holtz in 1992. The three others in between — Bob Davie (1997-2001), Tyrone Willingham (2002-04) and Charlie Weis (2005-09) — lasted from three to five years, not including a four-day stint by George O ' L e a r y i n D e c e m b e r 2001. There have generally been three phases to go through for Notre Dame football coaches who have been able to last this long: • The first is defining his trajectory by the end of year three. The seven Notre Dame coaches who lost a minimum of five games in year three did not last beyond five years. One departed after four (Joe Kuharich) and two were ousted after three (Hunk Anderson and Will- ingham). Kelly's 12-1 mark in year three (2012) — the lone season among the last 22 in which the Fighting Irish didn't lose at least three games — likely bought him at least an extra five years. • Phase two is once a coach reaches a sev- enth season at Notre Dame, it can be like a second wind that seems to bring out the best in him. The combined record of the previ- ous five coaches in year seven was 47-4-1 (.913), including two consensus national titles and two near misses (see chart). • The final phase is reaching the 11 sea- sons College Football Hall of Fame mem- bers Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian and Holtz did before stepping down of their own voli- tion (or at thought to be). "There's no question, you can't do this job for 15 years," Kelly told FOX Sports' Colin Cowherd in September 2015. For now, a reasonable aspiration is to reach 11. In January, the university an- nounced that Kelly had signed a new six- year agreement that runs through the 2021 season — or what would be year 12 in his regime. Whether he will actually fulfill the full term is uncertain (Weis signed a 10-year extension in 2005 that was supposed to take him through the 2015 cam- paign), but if Kelly — who turns 55 on Oct. 24 — can achieve the type of "Sev- enth Heaven" most of his predecessors did, then reaching the 11th year likely can be accomplished on his own terms as well. Shortly after signing his extension, Kelly outlined to UND.com the four reasons why he is committed to fin- ishing his coaching days with the Fighting Irish: 1 . C o a c h i n g a t t h e p r e e m i n e n t C a t h o l i c university. "As an Irish-Catholic from Boston, I can feel that every day," he said. "It's a part of who we are." 2. Pride in the stu- dent-athletes that are recruited. D u r i n g Ke l l y 's fi r s t six seasons, the program ranked first among Foot- ball Bowl Subdivision in- stitution in NCAA Gradua- tion Success Rate numbers three times, and never lower than sixth. 3. Control of the roster. Although Kelly's name has been linked many times to an NFL coaching search because of his dalliance with the Philadelphia Eagles shortly after the 2013 BCS National Cham- pionship Game against Alabama, he ada- mantly told Blue & Gold Illustrated prior to the 2015 season that the NFL became less appealing to him when he discovered how unless you're a four-time Super Bowl champ like Bill Belichick at New England, coaches are far more at the mercy of the front office than in the college game. 4. Believing in the product he sells at Notre Dame. "This isn't like selling used cars," Kelly said. "This is changing lives." ✦ UNDER THE DOME SEVENTH HEAVEN Brian Kelly becomes sixth Notre Dame coach to reach season seven Among the seven coaches hired at Notre Dame the past 40 years, Kelly is the second to reach a seventh season. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND

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