We’ve been hearing the name Brian Kelly as a candidate to replace Charlie Weis as the head coach of Notre Dame even before Weis got fired following the Stanford loss. The name Jim Harbaugh was floated around, though he denied he was meeting with the Irish brass. Reports also said there was “mutual interest” between ND and UConn coach, Randy Edsall. But on the same day that Cincinnati decided the media wouldn’t be allowed to attend a team banquet, word comes out from that Notre Dame will make Brian Kelly their new head coach.
Because of his success at Cincinnati, Kelly was likely the top candidate to move up on the coaching ladder. Even though Kelly has turned a basketball school like Cincy into a football powerhouse recently, there is one item about him that makes me skeptical: the Bearcats’ offense, not defense, has been their strong point. If there was a glaring weakness for the Irish this past season (and all along under Weis) it was that the defense wasn’t good enough to make them dominate. One would have thought their priority should have been to bring in a defensive-minded coach. Even if that’s not what they did, given Kelly’s track record of winning at Cincinnati and Grand Valley State, he should have more success at Notre Dame than his predecessors.
