Notre Dame Hires Brian Kelly

The University of Notre Dame has a new football coach for the fifth time in the last fourteen years. The Irish have chosen former Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly to lead them into the next decade, a pivotal time in which Notre Dame will prove to be a contender or just another program with a storied past and a dismal future. Terms of the contract have not yet been announced.

Kelly arrives in South Bend after leading the Bearcats to a 34-6 record in his three seasons, including a pair of BCS Bowls. Kelly is cashing in after guiding his Cincinnati team to a second straight Big East championship while remaining undefeated. It has not yet been announced whether or not Kelly will lead his team into it Sugar Bowl game against defending national champion Florida but he is expected to get on the recruiting trail as soon as possible for the Irish.

The emphasis has to come on the defensive side of the ball next season for Notre Dame but not for reasons that many have eluded to in 2009. As elite as the Irish were on the offensive side of the ball, their defense struggled mightily and probably cost them three or four games. If they had a solid defense this year they might have finished 10-2 with the possibility of playing in a BCS Bowl. But they were so weak opponents knew if they had a chance to tie or go ahead in the fourth quarter the game was in their favor. Next season is a different story.

The Irish will have to field an extraordinary defensive unit in order to finish .500. The early departures of 3-year starters QB Jimmy Clausen and WR Golden Tate will leave the Irish looking to replace their two most dependable playmakers. Wide receiver Michael Floyd, who was the #1 receiver heading into the season, has to be thinking about entering the NFL Draft as well. He has a large enough body of work over the past three seasons for scouts to make a judgment on, but also the NFL Combine to prove his raw athleticism. Kelly will also have to replace a few key players on the offensive line, which leaves the offensive cupboard essentially bare.

Three of the Irish’s top four incoming recruits are defensive players, with the most impressive being DT Louis Nix. The credential that stands out most about Nix isn’t his forty time or his bench press, it’s that he de-committed from the University of Miami and chose Notre Dame over the Hurricanes, Florida and Florida State. He is still only the 8th ranked defensive tackle in his class though. SEC schools are still gobbling up the best defensive high school stars and Notre Dame will be playing catch up until the day they convince these five star athletes to commit. Until then, the Irish defensive unit will be flooded with kids like Chris Badger, a high school safety out of Utah who is committed to Notre Dame in the 2010 class. He runs a 4.75 forty and is known as a ‘tough nut’. Tough nuts are good when they run 4.4′s and hit hard but when they are tackling guys 30 yards after the catch because they have a big heart it doesn’t do you much good.

Kelly has a long, hard road ahead but it will be paved with a lot of cash with the dreams of the greatest reward any coach can ever receive in college football, a national title. As unrealistic as it sounds to realists outside the Notre Dame program today, those are the expectations at some point in the next five years.

If Kelly can somehow find that leprechaun at the end of the rainbow he will go down in Notre Dame lore forever. If he can’t, he will join the growing line of coaches who have left South Bend without much hardware but with much fatter wallets.