Play Like a Champion: Brian Kelly's First Season at Notre Dame

Well, fellow Irishmen and women, it's that time of the year again.  Autumn is right around the corner, the leaves will soon start falling, the temperature will begin to drop a little, and Notre Dame football will be back.  We will no longer, however, be seeing Jimmy Clausen under center (heck, under Brian Kelly we may never see a QB under center again!) and Charlie Weis is back in his NFL comfort zone.

At the start of last year, Notre Dame's expectations were tempered.  This year, with a successful BCS-pedigreed coach wearing the headset, the expectation level has been raised.  With Coach Kelly, we will be running a completely different offense than what we have been accustomed to under Charlie Weis. 

Charlie ran a traditional "pro-style" offense.  Brian Kelly brings the en vogue offense: The spread.  Kelly's spread, unlike Urban Meyer's, is more pass happy.  He has the typical resume of a young successful coach in that he started with smaller schools and made them winners a la Meyer.

Kelly started out at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.  It was at GVSU that he started his tradition of winning, coaching the Lakers for 13 years while leading them to a 118-35-2 record under his watch.  The Lakers won five conference championships and two Division II National Championships while making the playoffs six times under him.

The next stop for Brian was Central Michigan University.  Before he arrived there in 2004, CMU had a tradition of futility.  In his second year with the Chippewas, the team went 6-5, their first winning season in seven years.  In his third year, the team won a MAC Championship and earned a bowl bid.  He left CMU after the 2006 season.

Kelly's last stop before he reached South Bend was the University of Cincinnati.  He took a school that was never been known for its football prowess or its ability to recruit and turned them into a BCS representative.  In fact, the Bearcats were one second away from a potential National Championship berth.

In Kelly's first year at Cincinnati, he led them to their first 10-win season since 1949.  In his final two years at the U of C (2008 and 2009), he led the Bearcats to back-to-back Big East Championships.

This gives us Irish fans reason to be optimistic.  Brian Kelly is a winner, and the schools he takes over do nothing but win.

If Kelly can do what he did at Cincinnati, a school not known for attracting top-level recruits, imagine what he can do in South Bend with our tradition and ability to draw top-shelf talent? 

We have every reason to be optimistic about the 2010 season.  We play a relatively soft schedule and technically only have four road games (our game at Yankee Stadium against Army is considered a home game, as it should because there will likely be far more Irish fans in the stands).

We get our first two games in South Bend against Purdue and Michigan.  We should beat both of those teams.  Two of our next three are on the road, at Michigan State, home for Stanford, and at Boston College.  I think Michigan State is a very winnable game, but Stanford and BC will be tough. 

If we can make it out of those games unscathed, we only have one more real tough game (Pittsburgh at home) and then it should be smooth sailing (Western Michigan, Navy, and Tulsa) until November 13th when we play Utah.  After that, we go to Yankee Stadium to play Army, and end the season in Southern California to play the under-suspension Trojans.

Looking at that schedule, I see at least nine wins.  There are a few games that could go either way, Stanford, BC, and Pitt come to mind, but I think this team will be ready this year.  You always had the feel under Charlie Weis that the conditioning and preparation level just weren't there in the big games.  We were also consistently outcoached under Charlie, and seemed to fade late in the season.

I believe Brian Kelly will bring the knowledge and game planning to win big games, and Kelly himself said that many of our players have improved in the strength and conditioning department.

This year, unlike the past half decade, I won't go into big games fearing that we are severely outmanned in the coaching department.  And for the first time in a very long time, I believe we have a very distinct advantage in coaching over our biggest rivals, USC and Michigan.

It feels like every year this same thing is said about Notre Dame, but this year is different.  We don't have an NFL offensive coordinator running the team, we have a proven leader of college players running the team.  I don't anticipate this team underperforming in big games or losing to teams it should beat.

As Terrell Owens would say, "Get your popcorn ready," as it's going to be a very exciting season.  These are going to be good times to be an Irish fan.  As Brian Kelly said when asked if Notre Dame would win a National Championship: "Definitely."

Go Irish.