Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Notre Dame Gives Thanks for One Thing Above All Else

The Fighting Irish are thriving under new leadership

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Sep 3
Sep 3

By Rock Westfall

At the beginning of Thanksgiving Week and the final weekend of the regular season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish control their destiny to qualify for the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

Following a Week 2, 16-14 home loss to the Northern Illinois Huskies, the college football media gave the Fighting Irish last rites. However, the Irish went on to win the nine games that followed. If Notre Dame can beat the USC Trojans at the LA Coliseum on Saturday, their ticket is punched.

As I wrote here during the offseason, history shows that the true measurement of a Notre Dame head coach is in their third season on the job. Marcus Freeman is passing that benchmark with flying colors. Freeman is proving to be the right man for the job. Players love and play hard for him, and he is growing into the role.

Freeman’s success is causing Notre Dame fans to give early thanks for a profound transformation that has changed the perception of two elite programs and the career trajectory of the two men who lead those national brands. 

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LSU Tiger Fans Not Giving Thanks  

While times are good at Notre Dame, the former head coach of the Fighting Irish is now fighting for his job. Brian Kelly left a 2021 Notre Dame team still in the hunt for the College Football Playoff to take the head coaching job with the LSU Tigers.

Kelly was touted as a brilliant hire who would pick up the pieces from Ed Orgeron and lead the Bayou Bengals to become perennial contenders for the College Football Playoff and at least one national championship.

Now in Year 3 of the Kelly era, LSU is fighting for a mid-level bowl berth and relevancy. The Tigers are 7-4 and finally ended a 3-game losing streak last Saturday in a perfunctory 24-17 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Adding to the strife is that a day before the game, LSU lost a coveted 5-star quarterback recruit, Bryce Underwood, whom the now mediocre Michigan Wolverines and head coach Sherrone Moore flipped.

Thus, it is understandable that during the Vanderbilt game, chants of “Fire Brian Kelly” erupted in the grandstands of Tiger Stadium, where fans have had more than enough.

Tiger Stadium has had an alarming number of empty seats at times this year as frustrated fans are tuning out. The LSU faithful are feeling played, as if they have been sold a bill of goods.

The conventional wisdom regarding the Kelly hire was that he would flourish without the academic restrictions that have often been used as an excuse for Notre Dame’s inability to win its first national championship since 1988. However, the tradeoff that was ignored was the challenge of the SEC gauntlet.

Yes, Kelly took over an LSU program fully capable of recruiting against college football’s elite. But LSU must contend with a far more difficult SEC schedule than Kelly faced at Notre Dame. Thus far, Kelly is not up to par. Meanwhile, Freeman is taking full advantage of the weaker Notre Dame schedule just as Kelly did during his tenure there.  

Nobody Misses Kelly at Notre Dame – Nobody Wants Him at LSU

Brian Kelly’s abrasive personality wears thin on many people. But his winning record was the sugar that helped the medicine go down. Now, as the losses mount and the rest of the SEC passes him by, Kelly is confronting his chickens coming home to roost.

At America’s premier Catholic university, the delightful sin of schadenfreude continues indefinitely. Notre Dame fans will never forgive Kelly for bailing on a team still in the national championship hunt. Additionally, they won’t forgive Kelly for his teams being blown out in the 2012 National Championship Game and multiple College Football Playoff matchups.

Brian Kelly arrived in Baton Rouge as a northeastern native and thoroughbred with an embarrassing fake southern accent and a $95 million contract that sent expectations to the moon.

Kelly poured gasoline on the fire when he said he came to LSU out of a desire to “be with the best” and for “the commitment to excellence, rich traditions, and unrivaled pride and passion of LSU Football.”

Marcus Freeman still must prove that he can take Notre Dame to a level that Kelly could not. But for now, Freeman has won over the fans and players and is riding high, basking in their love and adoration.

Brian Kelly finished 92-39 at Notre Dame with six double-digit win seasons in his final seven years on the job. He cracked the Top 10 in three of his final four seasons under Touchdown Jesus. Certainly, he left Notre Dame better than he found it.

But Kelly’s ugly departure from Notre Dame and his current underwhelming performance at LSU have Fighting Irish fans giving thanks that he is gone and LSU fans begging Santa Claus for a new coach with a real Cajun accent.  

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