Brian Kelly: Why He Should Never Be Compared to Lou Holtz and Nick Saban

The Irish have lost to Navy and Tulsa in back to back games, and no matter how optimistic you are, no one can feel good about this.

I'm a Notre Dame fan, but I'm not that big on Brian Kelly and I don’t think he will ever be able to win a national championship at Notre Dame.

He does have a lot of wins, but he has never beaten any good teams. When Cincinnati played Oklahoma, Virginia Tech and Florida they were blown out. I know he wasn't there against Florida, but they would have won by a large margin if he was.

People love to compare what's happening now at Notre Dame to Lou Holtz's first year when he lost six games or to Nick Saban when Bama struggled in his first year, but if you look in depth at those two seasons it tells a different story.

Four of the six games Lou Holtz lost in his first year were to teams that finished the season ranked in the top 10. Notre Dame fell to No. 7 Michigan that year, losing by two points. They also lost one game by five points to Penn State, the eventual national champion.

Nick Saban lost six games in 2007, five to SEC competition. One loss came to national champ LSU (41-34), and one loss came to eventual No. 2 Georgia by three points in overtime.

You can’t compare the teams Notre Dame lost to with the teams Saban and Holtz lost to. Kelly’s competition is nowhere near what they faced.

Kelly can’t win a championship because he doesn’t even try to run the ball or play defense. He has always believed in a pass first, high scoring offense. Kelly wants to score 55 points and hold his opponent to 40 points. He could never beat a team like Alabama or Ohio State like that. Those teams can score a lot and shut down any team defensively.

Defense wins championships and you have to be able to run the ball. Look at the top teams in college football over the last 10 years. Florida, Alabama and USC all had a great defense and running game.

These teams have great defenses and win on defense and special teams, not offense. Turnovers and field position are key to their success. It doesn’t matter how many points they put up on offense, because their defenses could stop anyone. They all had an attack style defense that dictates what their opponents offense could do.

Secondly, they are running teams. They do it from different formations, but make no mistake, they all rely on the run to score points.

Florida uses the spread formation to create running lanes. Urban Meyer runs it with receivers, running backs and his quarterbacks. Percy Harvin had over 1,893 rushing yards and 1,929 receiving yards in his career. That's almost an even split for a receiver! We all know how he used Tebow. Look how he's using Burton this year. Brian Kelly is no Urban Meyer.

Bama uses a two tight end, single back formation. Plain smash mouth football. The Tide have big, physical receivers and tight ends that can take advantage of the one on one matchups their running game gives them.

USC has a pro style offense. The Trojans use I-form and singe back sets, but they always force their opponent to respect the run. I don’t need to say much about this team. Notre Dame fans know all to well what USC can do.

In the current BCS era, there has never been a champion that did not have a top defense and good running game. The “Brian Kelly” style of play, a pass happy offense with a below average defense, just doesn’t win. That’s why I was surprised when Notre Dame hired him. I knew the Irish wouldn’t get Stoops or Meyer, but I was sure it would be Charlie Strong.

I just thought he was too good to pass up. He was the No. 1 defensive coach in the nation, and his defenses won BCS Championships and dominated the SEC (not the sorry Big East). Strong was seeking a head coaching job for two years, and he coached at Notre Dame!

Strong believes in an attacking defense. He wants to create turnovers and defensive touchdowns, and he has put a lot of people in the NFL too. Like I said before, he is a respected defensive coach and would have recruits begging for a chance to play for him.

I don't know if Kelly should be fired, but this year's team has not improved at all. They have regressed. No one expected a BCS bowl, but losing to Tulsa and Navy plus the horrible defense should place Kelly on the hot seat for next year. We lose a lot of talent next year and our schedule will be tougher. Also, I don't want to even think about 2012. The Mayans couldn't predict the disaster that season will be if Kelly can't turn things around.

Think about this overall. This is probably the toughest schedule Kelly has ever had to play against, and the season isn't over yet. Still, the real problem at Notre Dame is not Kelly.

I think this is a top down problem. It begins and ends with the school president and the athletic director. They may be the people that need to get fired first. They just don’t understand how to put together a good team. This is Notre Dame, a good season won’t cut it, and everyone around the program is dying for a decade of dominance. Brian Kelly can’t make that happen, and the people that hired him need to go.