The University of Notre Dame announced today that it has extended head football coach Brian Kelly's contract through 2021, which will make him the longest tenured coach in the university's history. Kelly has amassed a 55-23 record in 78 games. Lou Holtz, who coached from 1986 to 1996, was 100-30-2 in 132 career games. Depending on the team's bowl game appearances, Kelly could pass Holtz during the Sept. 19, 2020 game against Purdue. The timing of this announcement suggests it's aimed ...
Brian Kelly
Debate This: Malik Zaire is your 2016 Quarterback
Malik Zaire will be Notre Dame's starting quarterback this year. Here's why: Statistics Notre Dame's offense under Malik Zaire was more efficient than it was under DeShone Kizer, if we limit the statistics to each QB's first 212 snaps. (That's Zaire's career total.) Zaire had 46 snaps in what I'd consider garbage time before starting against LSU in the Music City Bowl. Kizer had 32 snaps against Texas (garbage time) and Virginia (big time) before his first start against Georgia Tech. ...
Debate This: DeShone Kizer is Your 2016 Quarterback
For college football fans, winter should be a time to rest the heart (and the whiskey bottle) after a stressful season. But this is Notre Dame Football. ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: 2025 A.D.
There is a class of third-graders in California that has adopted the University as something of learning partner, teacher’s aide, and mentor. These young lads and lasses call themselves the Notre Dame Class of 2029. I enthusiastically applaud this kind of bold, audacious vision and aspiration; after all, in 1842, I declared a mildewed log cabin on the Midwestern American tundra to be a University. Didn’t go from mission to school to college – never used the word ‘impossible’ – didn’t bother to ...
Offseason Resolutions
So, halfway through January, how are your New Year’s resolutions holding up? Personally, I like resolutions that are easy to keep (e.g., continue with my commitment to procrastinating with everything in life) or just unachieveable/undesirable (e.g., run a marathon). What about our beloved Irish? What is going on in the mind of Brian Kelly - a few weeks removed from the Phoenix-Battle-Fiesta-Frog Bowl and near the finish line for signing day 2016? The loss to Ohio State left many with a ...
Urban Meyer Better Than Brian Kelly In Most Ways
This entry is part of Her Loyal Sons' continuing Fiesta Bowl preview series: Defensive preview, Ezekiel Elliott accident, Costume Gameday, offensive preview, Injured Irish returning, comprehensive bowl overview. Today, we examine the coaches. By almost all metrics, Ohio State's Urban Meyer has had a more successful career recently than Notre Dame's Brian Kelly. Let's compare: HEAD-TO-HEAD (ON THE FIELD) Kelly and Meyer have never faced each other. The pair were on a collision course ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Working Mercy
Pope Pope Pope Pope. Is no one aware that we have a football season underway? Well, certainly not the Pope, since his idea of a football is round, you can’t touch it, and you play with it on a pitch. Yes, for Catholics (and, strangely, also for non-Catholics) a Papal visit is very exciting. It is an element of our religion, of our belief system, to recognize the supremacy of the Pope. But it’s also an important element of faith for both Catholics and many, many others, to recognize the supremacy ...
Tarean Folston Tears ACL, Out For Season
As the near perfection of Saturday's home opener against Texas continued to dance in the heads of Notre Dame fans everywhere, the other shoe seemed like it had to drop just around the corner. That shoe came in the form of Tarean Folston's injury news. The junior running back has officially been ruled out due to a torn right ACL for the rest of the season following his Sunday MRI. The injury occurred during Notre Dame's second offensive possession and the 2014 leading rusher never returned to ...
Magic Malik: The Irish Impress, 38-3
Before following the leads sparking and arcing from last night's impressive win over Texas, it is important to take a breath and appreciate Notre Dame's win as just that. Home and season openers have not always been smooth operations under Coach Brian Kelly. Yesterday, though, the Irish were mostly spectacular. The story was quarterback Malik Zaire, who had his way with the Longhorn defense and carried himself with a swagger that never seemed ready to implode in a cascade of ...
Know Thyself, Know Thy Enemy: Coach
As kickoff for Notre Dame football approaches, we close out our annual Know Thyself, Know Thy Enemy series. In this final installment, we look at the position of head coach. The Irish: Brian Kelly Of course, Kelly gets this by default. Opinions on Kelly are as varied as the Notre Dame fanbase. Regardless of where you may lie on the Kelly love/hate spectrum, the fact is that he is the longest tenured coach at Notre Dame since Lou Holtz. Further, Kelly has never finished .500 or worse, a ...