Notre Dame Football: Brian Kelly's Changes to Coaching Staff Will Produce Wins

Notre Dame football head coach Brian Kelly made wholesale changes to his coaching staff this offseason and it will produce big wins for the team this year.

At least that’s what he hopes.

After going 8-5 and disappointing the members of the Fighting Irish nation, Kelly was forced to make serious changes or risk losing his job sooner rather than later.

With three of his staff members leaving for other jobs anyway, the idea to bring in new blood was something forced from jump street. It may just be enough to turn the program around, though.

Kelly told the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel about his moves involving the coaching staff and why those decisions were made:

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After every season, when you don’t reach the goals that you set for yourself, it’s important the appropriate measures are taken in terms of evaluating all facets of your program; Player development, player personnel, coaching staff…all of those things. We did not reach the goals that we had set offensively. So it was important that we put the pieces together and we started with the coaching staff. I think that we’ve made significant improvements there.

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The first huge move that Kelly made by moving safeties coach and recruiting coordinator Chuck Martin over to offensive coordinator. This was reminiscent of the move Andy Reid made on his coaching staff last season with the Eagles, but let’s just hope Martin’s transition to offense goes smoother than Juan Castillo’s move to defense.

I know it can’t get much worse.

As for the defensive side of the ball, Kelly hired Iowa State assistant Bob Elliot to work the secondary while defensive coordinator Bob Diaco adds assistant head coach to his list or responsibilities.

What these changes create is stability on both sides of the ball. Kelly and Martin will have their offense running perfectly and the new defensive coaching staff will have the Fighting Irish swinging harder than they have in years.

While Kelly took some chances on his staff, he is investing his future in these decisions, so we have to believe it will be an improvement over the last few seasons.

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