A Three-Dimensional Year For Notre Dame, Brian Kelly
Last month at this time we noted how 2018 is "the year of threes" on the Notre Dame football schedule.
• The opener at Michigan has the Wolverines arriving with a three-game losing streak, while Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly tries to avoid becoming the first Notre Dame coach to lose three openers (South Florida in 2011 and at Texas in 2016) in his career.
• On Sept. 29, the Irish will be out to snap a three-game losing streak to Stanford.
• A week later at Virginia Tech, Notre Dame will attempt to halt a three-game slide in the ACC marquee road games the Irish have played since the start of their partial football membership in 2014: at Florida State in 2014, at Clemson in 2015 and at Miami last year.
• Northwestern on Nov. 3 will by vying for its third straight victory against Notre Dame, having previously vanquished it on the road in 1995 (17-15) and 2014 (43-40 in overtime).
• One week later (Nov. 10), Florida State invades Notre Dame Stadium with a three-game winning streak versus the Irish dating back to 2003.
• On Nov. 24 at USC, the Irish will try to avoid a third straight defeat in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and sixth consecutive overall (which is two times three) in a regular season finale since 2013.
On the plus side, over the past 15 years Kelly has had an excellent string of success every three seasons, beginning in 2003:
2003 Grand Valley State
His 13-year head coaching reign with the Lakers ended with a 14-1 mark and the Division II national title, which he parlayed into advancing to the FBS level by landing another in-state job at Central Michigan.
Interestingly, while Grand Valley State under Kelly became known for prolific offenses, two of the four Playoff contests were 10-3 wins, including the title game versus North Dakota.
2006 Central Michigan
Three years later, Kelly and his staff led the Chippewas to their first Mid-American Conference championship in 12 years. This resulted in his hiring at the University of Cincinnati, which played in the more prominent Big East.
CMU had six straight losing seasons from 1999-2004 (20-48) overall before the 10-win campaign that was capped by a 31-10 conquest of head coach Frank Solich’s Ohio Bobcats in the MAC championship game, followed by a Motor City Bowl win — the school’s first ever postseason triumph.
2009 Cincinnati
Speaking of never winning a bowl … the Bearcats had never finished in the Associated Press (begun in 1936) rankings until achieving it all three years under Kelly.
The highlight was year 3 with a 12-0 regular season that earned him Coach of The Year notice and landed him the Notre Dame job that December. Had Texas not kicked a 46-yard field goal as time elapsed in the 13-12 Big XII championship game victory versus Nebraska, the Bearcats were in line to play Alabama for the national title.
2012 Notre Dame
In year three, following back-to-back 8-5 disappointments, Kelly won AP national coach of the year honors, and Home Depot Coach of The Year for the second time in four years with another 12-0 regular season. The only other coach to reach 12-0 at two different FBS-level schools was Urban Meyer (Utah in 2004 and Ohio State in 2012).
Despite the 42-14 BCS Championship loss to Alabama, Notre Dame's No. 4 finish was the team's highest the past 24 years (1994-2017). It also was only the second top-10 placement in that time, and the lone campaign with less than three losses.
2015 Notre Dame
Entering the final game of the regular season at Stanford, 10-1 Notre Dame still had a shot at the four-team College Football Playoff (in its second year of existence) before losing to Stanford, 38-36, on the final play of the game.
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