Notre Dame Football: Should the Irish move on from Brian Kelly?

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:27 p.m. ET

Fansided, Joel W. Cade/FanSided via Saturday Blitz

Nov 5, 2016; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly leads his team out to the field prior to a game against the Navy Midshipmen at Everbank Field. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports

After a tumultuous 2016 season and multiple underachieving seasons, is it time for Notre Dame football to move on from Brian Kelly?

Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly has politics in his blood. But has the time arrived where his political skills are no longer helping the Fighting Irish?

When the University of Notre Dame hired Brian Kelly, his skills as a politician were highly touted as a reason for optimism for the Fighting Irish.

During his time at the Cincinnati, Kelly had used his political skills to improve the Bearcat program. He reached out to the community and the student body successfully doubling the team's season-ticket sales. He successfully rallied support for the program to the point where a Bearcat ticket was one of the hottest in town.

He put his political skills to work in other areas of improving his program. It was clear from the beginning of his time at UC that he was a natural recruiter. He recruited players to come to the program but he also recruited the players within the program. Kelly politically maneuvered through the locker room gaining an incredible buy-in from the players. All of which led to success on the field.

When Kelly was hired at the University of Notre Dame, it seemed like a perfect match. A highly political university hires a highly political coach. The hope was that Kelly could galvanize the Alumni, the administration, bring unity to the football team in the locker room leading to wins on the field.

True to form, Kelly has employed his political machinations uniting the administration, student body and players around the football program. Changed the culture of a flailing program under Charlie Weis bringing it back into national prominence. His coaching career reached it apex when he took the Fighting Irish to the National Championship game after the 2012 season.

But the 2016 Notre Dame season brought out a different side of Kelly's political skills. The dark side of political skills lies in how they are employed. Will they be used to build up the community or to further a personal agenda? In an ideal world building up the community is furthering the coach's personal agenda. But something changed in 2016.

Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly speaks at the post game press conference following the game against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

What changed in South Bend?

Somewhere amid the terrible 4-8 football season, Kelly began to speak like a politician who put his own career ahead of his constituents. When things began to go poorly for the Irish, Brian Kelly, like a good politician, began to deflect blame off himself and onto others.

There is the infamous post-game press conference after the Irish lost to Duke in which Kelly throws his players under the bus.

Brian Kelly looks to the players as the reason the game went bad. He committed to re-evaluating every position. He stated he would look at every position on the field "Every position, every position, all 22 of them".

After a game is an emotional time for a coach and being frustrated with the performance of the team is natural. But Kelly is too refined in the political art of coaching to slip up. He passed the buck to the players. Even if the players were at fault, the best way to win the locker room would be to take the blame upon himself.

At that time in the season, the Irish defense was clearly struggling. The struggles led to the eventual dismissal of defensive coordinator Brian Van Gorder mid-season. But on this day, the defensive coaching was not the issue.

"Actually, that's probably the one area that I feel better about today," Kelly said. "We did what I wanted today in terms of coaching. And coaching had nothing to do with the outcome today. I was pleased from that perspective."

The best political move for the coach here was to spread the blame all over the program. He could have kept the locker room and the coaching staff all bought in by simply stating there was room for improvement everywhere.

But Kelly did not take that route. He began to distance himself as a coach from the performance on the players on the field. It was as if the seasoned politician saw the eventual storm coming and already began immunize himself from blame.

It was a sad turn. Brian Kelly had begun using his highly touted political skills to embark on a CYA campaign. In the process, the support he enjoyed from the alumni, administration and players began to erode. The result was more loses.

The aftermath of the season would turn out to be just as political as the season

The aftermath

The day after the Irish lost to USC 45-27, Brian Kelly issued a statement that he was "fully committed" to leading the Irish in 2017.

Statement from @NDFootball coach Brian Kelly… pic.twitter.com/NuPHmNlTyr

— Michael Bertsch (@NDsidBertschy) November 27, 2016

Yet, at the same time Yahoo! and ESPN were reporting that Brian Kelly was exploring other coaching opportunities through his representative.

The nasty side of being political reared its ugly head again. Kelly is doing the politically correct thing by showing support and commitment to Notre Dame. At the same time, he explored other opportunities through his various back channels.

To be fair to Kelly, he has always been a ladder climbing careerist. He has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to move on to the bigger and brighter opportunity when it presents itself. Thus, his exploring new coaching opportunities is simply par for the course for Kelly.

Yet, while he was exploring other opportunities, Kelly began to put his political acumen back to work fixing the problems that marred the 2016 season.

Kelly attacks the problem much in the same way a good politician would. He begins to rebuild the bridges he burnt down during the season.

First, he explores replacements for the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coaches. By replacing the trifecta of coaches on his staff, Kelly essentially tore the coaching staff down to nuts and bolts. In its place will be a staff that will bring a complete change to the way the Irish play on the field. Replacing the coaching staff allows Kelly to admit there were coaching concerns but remain immune to the culpability himself.

Second, Kelly rebuilds bridges with the players. As he states in the press conference, he interviewed 96 players to gauge their pulse on what went wrong, what went wrong and what needed to be changed. The result is a more visible Brian Kelly who engages with his players at a more personal level. Building bridges galvanizes the team to rally around Kelly as the head coach.

The political activities of clearing house, galvanizing players and giving the program a new direction are exactly the reasons Kelly was a good fit at Notre Dame.

But is the team building activity a change of heart for Kelly? Or does he see his own best interesting lying outside of Notre Dame?

Sep 24, 2016; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly walks into the stadium before the game against the Duke Blue Devils at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Even more issues

Questions continue to surround Kelly and his tenure at Notre Dame.

When things got rough, he deflected the blame onto others. It seems he cleaned house and rebuilt his rapport with the team. But were these measures designed to help him maintain his job at Notre Dame?

How much responsibility for the situation is he taking upon himself?

In a rather bizarre move, Kelly recently made unflattering comments about former Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer.

He makes the case that Kizer is not ready to enter the NFL. Kelly claims that Kizer is not yet complete and needed more time develop. These comments may be accurate about Kizer. He does need to show more consistency as a passer to compete at the next level. But the timing of the comments is bizarre.

Further, Kelly makes the subtle point that Kizer has some off the field maturing to do. These comments seem to be a return to the deflect blame mode that tore his relationships with players asunder. But Kelly is too politically astute to begin ripping down program he began rebuilding a few short months earlier.

Whatever the reason for the comments, they are not a good look for Brian Kelly or the University of Notre Dame football program.

Is Brian Kelly's political acumen being used for the mutual benefit of both coach and university? Or has Kelly embarked on a self-beneficial program that no longer benefits the University of Notre Dame?

Universities have an obligation to its students. It must provide a safe, enjoyable and educational environment for its students to thrive. The university also has an obligation to the football program beyond the head coach. It must ensure the long-term health of the program.

Kelly's comments jeopardize the program's ability to recruit elite athletes. Who would want to play for a coach who throws them under the bus after a loss? Or potentially hurts their chances to make money in the NFL?

At some point, the University of Notre Dame must evaluate its relationship with Brian Kelly. Notre Dame must ask itself if Brian Kelly is using Notre Dame for his benefit without receiving a benefit in return.

Although Notre Dame may be the best place for Kelly (for now), Brian Kelly may not be the best coach for Notre Dame.

Is it time for Notre Dame to move on from Brian Kelly?