Notre Dame's Brian Kelly: Are Fans Expecting Too Much Too Soon?

Can first-year coach Brian Kelly deliver what Notre Dame fans want?  Can he win eight games this year?  Can he win a National Championship for Notre Dame?

When Kelly left the Cincinnati Bearcats for the head coaching job at Notre Dame, he entered another dimension. 

Whether he knows it or not, he's now working for a school that expects him to win a National Championship.  He doesn't have to win it in 2010, or 2011.  But in 2012, if he isn't squarely on a path leading towards that goal, he'll have a lot of explaining to do.

Notre Dame is a school that chews coaches up and spits them out.  It's also a place that can take a coach to college football immortality—there is no middle ground at Notre Dame.

Kelly, who describes the Notre Dame job as his childhood dream, is going under the microscope on Sept. 4.  That's the day Notre Dame opens their season.

Like Kelly, Michigan's Coach Rich Rodriguez came out of the Big East with huge success.  Rodriguez won four Big East Championships at West Virginia, and turned around Glenville State before that.  Three years later, he's hanging by a thread to his Michigan coaching life.

Notre Dame fans hope that in three years, Brian Kelly will be on the road to that elusive National Championship.

WHO BUILT THE CINCINNATI BEARCATS PROGRAM?

The Boston native spent three years as head coach of Cincinnati, and compiled a 34-6 record.  Going 34-6 at a BCS conference school is astounding. 

In those short three years, Kelly won two Big East Championships, went to two BCS bowls, and beat a lot of good football teams, in and out of the Big East.

Last year, his Bearcats took a 12-0 record into the Sugar Bowl against Florida.  They got beat convincingly, but that shouldn't take away anything from a truly great season.

Kelly arrived in Cincinnati at the end of the 2006.  He had just spent three years at Central Michigan University, and turned that losing program into a winner.

Before he got to CMU, The Chippewas hadn't had a wining season in six years.  In his second year, Kelly went 6-5.  He went 9-4 in his third.  That's when Cincinnati decided he was the man they wanted to coach their team.

Cincinnati had just lost their coach.  Mark Dantonio, after three years at Cincinnati, was offered the Michigan State job.  Dantonio said yes!

One would think that Dantonio had to be successful at Cincinnati, for a prestigious Big Ten school to make him an offer.  He was!.  You might say he laid the foundation for the Cincinnati program to take off, when Kelly arrived.

In 2003, Cincinnati went 5-7 while playing in Conference USA.  Dantonio arrives and they go 7-5 in 2004.  The next year they dropped to 4-7, but that was the year they moved up in class, and joined the Big East.

It was  2006, when everything started to change.  With three games left, the Bearcats were 5-5, but they were in almost every game.  They lost 23-17 on the road to Louisville.  Louisville was a good team: they finished No. 4 in the final coaches poll (12-1).

After the Louisville game, Cincinnati won their last five of six, with the one loss to 12-1 West Virginia.  The Bearcats won their last three games and finished 8-5.

They were on their way, but it wasn't a matter of wins and losses.  Dantonio was bringing in good players. He knew how to recruit.

In the 2009 NFL draft, six of his recruits were selected.  Conner Barwin, DeAngelo Smith, Mike Mickens, Brandon Underwood, Trevor Canfield, and Kevin Huber were all drafted, and most of them still play on Sunday.

In the 2010 draft, three of Dantonio's recruits were selected, including Tony Pike and Mardy Gilyard.

Tony Pike and Mardy Gilyard were two of the best players in Bearcats' history.  You might need an adding machine to figure out how many more losses Kelly would have on his Cincinnati record, without these two All-Americans.

And what about Kelly, have any of his Cincinnati recruits been drafted?  We'll find out starting in the 2011 NFL draft.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MARK DANTONIO?

In three years at Michigan State, Mark Dantonio has done a good job with an overall record of 22-17.

He took over a team that struggled to finish 4-8 in 2006.  Dantonio instantly lifted the program and finished 7-6 in 2007. In 2008 the success continued with nine wins, but last season the team slipped to 6-7. 

The 2009 season was a disappointment:  Michigan State lost five games in which they held fourth quarter leads, and to make things worse, an off-campus altercation involving 11 players led to numerous suspensions.

This will be a telling year for Dantonio at Michigan State.  The early signs are positive.  If they can put last year's altercation behind them, they are expected to stay close in the Big Ten race.

WHO BUILT THE GRAND VALLEY STATE PROGRAM?

Kelly's first head coaching job was in 1991 at Grand Valley State.  The cupboard wasn't exactly bare.  In 1989, Grand Valley posted its first undefeated season (11-0), and in 1990, they went 10-2.

Kelly joined the Grand Valley coaching staff in 1987.  When Tom Beck left in 1991, for an assistant coaching job with Notre Dame, Kelly stepped in.

Kelly won a lot of games at Grand Valley (118-35-2).  In 2002 and 2003, Grand Valley won back-to-back Division II National Championships.  The following year was his first as Central Michigan's head football Coach.

ARE NOTRE DAME FANS EXPECTATIONS REAL?

In a recent Bleacher Report poll, readers were asked, "How many games will Notre Dame win in 2010?"  After 500 responses, the poll revealed that the average fan thought eight games seemed right.

Are eight wins too much too expect from a team with a rookie quarterback, and a schedule that's markedly tougher than last year's?

No, that seems within the zone.  It's natural for fans to be hopeful—in spring training, everyone thinks they'll win the pennant, right?

Fans just have to remember one thing:  Brian Kelly is a good football coach, he's not a magician.

As he enters the pressure cooker known as Notre Dame football, we'll see just how good a coach he is.