Brian Kelly: Why He Must Change To Win at Notre Dame

Like it or not, Brian Kelly is the guy. No matter what you think about him, Kelly is a winner.

Unlike Weis, he is a head coach, not a coordinator but the head honcho. By all reports his attitude is one of a natural leader. Irish fans should love this fact. He will lead Notre Dame and he wants to lead Notre Dame.

Coach Kelly being undefeated at Cincinnati is another good thing. Although we all like his record, the fact is none of that matters if can't reproduce those victories for the Irish faithful.

Cincinnati is in the Big East, yeah its one of the Big Six conferences but is universally recognized as the weakest one. Winning at least 10 games every season and going undefeated is nothing to frown at, but Cincy is not as impressive as an undefeated SEC or Big 12 team. The polls prove that.

Cincinnati’s rushing game and defense won't impress anyone either. Each of the last two years, Cincy rushed for about 200 more yards a season than Notre Dame. That comes out to 16.6 more rushing yards a game, see not very impressive. This is one thing Kelly has to change for himself and his new program.

Against Navy, Michigan State, and Purdue the Irish may not have to worry about running the ball, they can beat them passing. But let me be the first to welcome Brian Kelly to the rivalry that is Notre Dame v. USC. We have to be able to run the ball against the Trojans and most important, run it in the red zone. From day one, coach Kelly has to commit to the running game and succeed.

The second thing he has to change…you guessed it his approach to defense. When you talk about Kelly’s defense this year, the first thing a lot of people bring up is he had some players graduate. News flash, players graduating is not new to college sports it goes back a long way, trust me on this one.

His team let up a boat load of points this year to UCONN, Pitt, and (gulp) Illinois, plus OU dropped 59 on Cincy last year. The Irish had a good recruiting class on defense last year and has a better one this year, Notre Dame can get the players.

So, not only does he need to put a big emphasis on improving the defense, he needs to make it public. Every recruit out there needs to see this team will be a defensive football team. They need to know when you come to Notre Dame and play defense, you will be the most important asset on the team. His offense will speak for itself, Kelly needs to continue to bring in good players on defense.

The defensive coordinator he hires will be the vital to his success as the head coach at Notre Dame.

Like I said before with the weaker teams on the schedule, (and they do have some weak ones) the Irish can get away with passing and an “OK” defense. To beat the big boys, to beat USC, to get to a BCS game and win, Notre Dame needs a great defense and running game, two things Cincinnati hasn't had.

Brian Kelly has to change.