Notre Dame Football: Gunner Kiel's LSU Commitment Will Cost Brian Kelly His Job

Prized QB recruit Gunner Kiel likely doomed coach Brian Kelly's fate at Notre Dame when he chose LSU over the Irish. Kelly isn't going to be fired this year. He might not even be fired next year. But he isn't going to last much longer than that.

First things first: let's get to the news. 

The Commitment

On Tuesday, Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports.com reported on SI.com the news that Indiana high school quarterback sensation Gunner Kiel was committing to LSU.

Wiltfong noted that Notre Dame, along with Vanderbilt, were Kiel's top three choices. Kiel is almost universally considered on of the top 20 prospects in the nation and the No. 1 pro-style QB prospect. 

Failure to Keep Prized Recruits in State

The first check mark for Kelly in this announcement that will lead to his doom is his failure to lock up a prized recruit in-state. 

Notre Dame is a recruiting powerhouse. It isn't supposed to lose out on recruits like this that come from its home state. Locking up premier talent is a prerequisite for Notre Dame coaches. 

Still, Kelly has been doing a fine job of recruiting while he has been employed at Notre Dame, and this factor alone is not nearly enough to lead to his demise. 

The ultimate part of this deal is the next factor. 

QB Starved Future

Notre Dame's biggest weakness this season was shoddy QB play. The Irish used three QBs this year—none of which displayed that they had the ability to be the permanent answer. 

Sophomore QB Tommy Rees was clearly the best of the three, but the QB is mistake-prone and inaccurate. Rees has 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. This is certainly not a horrible ratio. However, it is not nearly good enough to make this program elite.

And like it or not, this is the QB Kelly is going to be tied to for the foreseeable future. 

Rees is never going to lead this program to a level that Kelly needs to maintain his employment, and his Notre Dame career will not last long enough to wait for a top notch QB to enter the program and make in impact in the ensuing seasons.