By Scott Salomon
When Brian Kelly could not win the big games at Notre Dame, he blamed it on the high academic standards that the university had and said that it could not compete for the best national recruits due to said high admission standards.
He claimed that he had to win with second-tier players, who had better academic records for the admissions office to brag about, but were not as talented on the gridiron.
It was also said that Kelly could not win at Notre Dame because he never had a blue-chip quarterback who could lead the Irish offense to the promised land.
He did have seven 10-win seasons in a row in South Bend, and was 8-3 against USC, but he never won in the postseason. He could not harness or channel the power from those 10-win seasons and win a meaningful 11th game in the postseason.
It just goes to show that Brian Kelly could not win the big game and was never a big-game coach. The same is proving to hold true now.
Kelly left South Bend for LSU where it was supposed to be an easier place to win and an easier place to recruit. Kelly was pegged to lead the Bayou Bengals to the College Football Playoffs from day one.
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Coming with him to Baton Rouge was dual-threat quarterback and Arizona State transfer Jayden Daniels. Daniels was the quarterback that Kelly never had and they were going to team up and win championships.
Yeah, that has not happened yet and it does not look like it is going to happen this season after LSU dropped its second game of the young season to Ole Miss.
Through five games, LSU is 3-2 and the playoffs are so far out of their sight that they need binoculars to just see a possible SEC West title and a return to the SEC title game, where they will get another beating from Georgia.
Maybe the fact of the matter is just that Brian Kelly cannot coach in the big games and is used to being the Bridesmaid and not the Bride. The guy just cannot win when it counts and will always be considered a loser when it comes to winning the big games.
Kelly also leads a horrific LSU defense that is keeping Daniels in the background. While he puts up Heisman-like statistics, the defense struggles to stop a nasal drip. They blew a second-half lead against Florida State on Labor Day Weekend to lose to the Seminoles for the second year in a row.
When it comes to recruiting, Kelly’s last recruiting class was ranked tenth nationally, while Notre Dame, with its high academic admission standards, was ranked eighth in the country.
Could it be that Kelly’s successor Marcus Freeman does more on the trail and gets more out of his players?
Notre Dame is now 11-2 in its last 13 games with Freeman. The Irish lost only to USC last season with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams and Ohio State, who scored a last-second touchdown two weeks ago to knock the Irish from the ranks of the unbeaten.
The Men of Troy come into South Bend to take on the Irish on October 14. With Kelly leaving, it is ironic that the Fighting Irish finally got a star quarterback in Sam Hartman, who transferred from Wake Forest to play for Freeman. This season’s game will be a battle between Williams and Hartman. It would be a feather in Freeman’s cap if his Irish could win the big game and take another step towards the Playoff.
LSU meanwhile, is 4-4 in its last eight games. They lost on opening weekend to Florida State and lost last Saturday to Ole Miss after giving up 55 points and 706 yards of offense.
Irish players were lukewarm to Kelly leaving but knew the program would be fine. It was a poor farewell, however, when he told players that he was leaving at an impromptu 7:00 a.m. meeting. Kelly addressed them for several minutes, took no questions, and then left.
He also took many of his loyal assistants who saw greener pastures and more money in the Gulf Coast. Freeman meanwhile, stayed behind and developed a winning program at Notre Dame and currently is fighting for a spot in the CFP.
Kelly left Notre Dame two years ago without winning a New Year’s Six Bowl Game and without winning a National Championship. His greatest postseason accomplishment is defeating an LSU team that lost to Troy in the Citrus Bowl
Part of Kelly’s legacy is going to be how he left the program. He got an offer from LSU, accepted it, and left. He did not discuss the offer with anyone in South Bend. No right to match or renegotiate a better deal with the Irish. He just bolted for the Bayou.
This is something that Golden Domers are not used to as they have not had a coach just pick up and leave since 1907 when Thomas Berry left for Wisconsin.
The long and short of it is that Kelly never won a major bowl game in his 12 seasons with the Fighting Irish. He might have gotten to a lot of big post-season games, but always left coming in second.
He went to the 2013 BCS Championship game, but got throttled by a much more talented Alabama team led by a vastly superior coach in Nick Saban.
Keep in mind, Ed Orgeron won a national title at LSU in 2019 and was able to recruit a star transfer portal quarterback in Joe Burrow. He was then given a short leash and was fired several years later only to be replaced by Kelly.
Unless a dramatic change happens, it will be written on Kelly’s professional tombstone that he could never win the big game.
