The Case for Brian Kelly to Leave Notre Dame

It is time for Brian Kelly to take a long, hard look at Notre Dame, at where it is and where it will be next year. He needs to take a look at himself too. And then, he should do one thing:    

Run. Now. Claim victory, then RUUUUUNNNN to the NFL.

To this point, even while Notre Dame's season falls off a cliff, Kelly has kept his reputation as the guy who stabilized the Irish after the Charlie Weis disaster and the guy who took them to the national championship game.

Year	School	W-L	Bowl
2004	Central Michigan	4-7
2005	Central Michigan	6-5
2006	Central Michigan	9-4
2006	Cincinnati	1-0	International-W
2007	Cincinnati	10-3	PapaJohns.com-W
2008	Cincinnati	11-3	Orange-L
2009	Cincinnati	12-0
2010	Notre Dame	8-5	Sun-W
2011	Notre Dame	8-5	Champs Sports-L
2012	Notre Dame	12-1	BCS Championship-L
2013	Notre Dame	9-4	Pinstripe-W
2014	Notre Dame	7-4

That makes him a viable NFL coaching candidate, and at the end of the year, there will be a number of those jobs available, potentially in Atlanta, Chicago, New York (Jets), Oakland and San Francisco. Maybe Miami too.

Kelly interviewed at Philadelphia in January 2013 for the Eagles job a few days after Notre Dame lost to Alabama in the BCS title game. Later, he told WNDU-TV in South Bend, Indiana, that he wasn't destined for the NFL, saying: "We're going to continue to win and I'm going to continue to get inquiries from the NFL. … Going through this process really helped clear my eyes why I'm here and why I want to be at Notre Dame."

That's easy to say coming off a run to the championship game. But the winning isn't continuing, and Kelly should jump while the inquiries still are. Those things run hand-in-hand. The Teflon on him is amazing, but it won't last forever.

The first half of Notre Dame's season was defined by another academic cheating scandal and a prolonged investigation into five players. A fast start wiped away the image of the cheating scandal somehow, but the second half has been defined by an on-field collapse. Notre Dame has lost four of its past five games, and going into the rivalry game at USC this weekend, Irish fans are in too much shock to process what's happening.

Soon—and this is just a gut feeling—they're going to start pointing fingers at Kelly.

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

Just run.

Honestly, Kelly should be an NFL coach anyway, where he can worry about football, focus on strategy and game film and let someone else deal with the other stuff, like developing young men. That probably sounds like an insult, but it isn't meant to be one.

Kelly is an excellent college coach. But college football is a different animal than the NFL. College coaches have way too many things to do, all while keeping the pretense that football isn't the most important thing in the world.

But Kelly has a bigger problem: Everett Golson.

A coach's reputation is tied to his quarterback. In college, it's about how much that QB has developed. At Notre Dame, it's also about how many championships they won together.

Golson isn't getting any better. He's getting worse. He has committed 20 turnovers in the past eight games. That included five in the loss at Arizona State.

A reporter asked Kelly in his postgame press conference about Golson, suggesting that he wasn't responsible for all of the turnovers.

"Why aren't they all on Golson?" Kelly asked. "We've been working with him. … Sooner or later he's got to take it on himself to take care of the football. I don't know what else to do."

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Well, one thing he could do but never considers is benching Golson. But no, Kelly is too wrapped up in Golson to do anything about it now.

Golson started the year as a feel-good story, a Heisman Trophy candidate. But he has fallen apart, lost his confidence. He fumbled Saturday in the loss to Louisville and then moped on the field while his teammates tried to get the ball back.

On Sunday, in Kelly's weekly press conference, he talked about Golson's development and potential. Someone asked Kelly if he thought Golson could be one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the country.

"I think there's got to be more growth there, absolutely," Kelly said. "There is a higher ceiling for him. He's not been tapped out in the sense that it's as good as he can play.

"I think there's a lot of room for development. … So in answering your question, yeah I believe that he could be one of the top quarterbacks in the country, no question."

Kelly came to Notre Dame known for developing players, particularly quarterbacks. It just isn't working out with Golson. That's a continuing hit to Kelly's reputation if he stays.

When you're coaching in the NFL, you don't have to worry about whether your quarterback is developing or your players are breaking laws or rules. That stuff is on the general manager.

I said this in 2012, but Kelly should be the coach of the Chicago Bears. Instead, the Bears hired Marc Trestman for his offensive genius. It hasn't worked out, and the Bears are likely to have another coaching opening at the end of the season. Kelly is fiery and has had tough defenses at Notre Dame. It's a fit.

But he would be fine with most NFL teams.

Kelly brought back Notre Dame's aura, and while Irish fans might not realize it yet, that's about gone again. The lawyers and power boys who serve as Notre Dame's decision-makers aren't going to put up with this for long.

Kelly can make a run now to protect his own legacy.

Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report. He also writes for The New York Times and was formerly a scribe for FoxSports.com and the Chicago Sun-Times. Follow him on Twitter @gregcouch.