Brian Kelly: ‘Find A Way To Win And Beat Duke’

The 2016 season marks the 15th time in Notre Dame football history that it has a 1-2 record after three games (not including 0-3 starts in 2001 and 2007).

The preseason goal at Notre Dame begins with making the four-team College Football Playoff. That is not going to happen.

Plan B is to make a Big Six bowl and end the drought of 23 straight years without winning a major postseason contest. That aspiration looks like a long shot unless the Fighting Irish run the table.

Head coach Brian Kelly stated during his Sunday teleconference that big-picture goals would be misguided at this point. Foremost on the check list is to improve individually and collectively from week to week to be a much better team in November than what has been demonstrated in September.

“All we’re looking for is to find a way to win and beat Duke,” Kelly said of this week’s opponent, which is 1-2 after opening with a 49-6 win versus North Carolina Central before losing at home to Wake Forest (24-14) and at Northwestern (24-13). “That’s really the goal that’s in front of us.

“… Our focus is on trying to find a way to come up with a win one week at a time. Just a smaller focus week to week and practice to practice.”

In the previous 14 years where Notre Dame began 1-2, it finished under .500 eight times, while in five others it had at least five losses. Only once did it finish ranked and with as few as three defeats. Can 2016 become the second such year?

Here is the chronological order of 1-2 starts (again, not including the two 0-3 beginnings) and what happened thereafter:

1956 — Finished with the worst record in Notre Dame history: 2-8. Despite the misery, quarterback Paul Hornung became the school’s fifth Heisman recipient in 14 years.

1960 — Head coach Joe Kuharich’s second season began with a win over California and ended with a win at USC — but in between it lost all eight for another 2-8 finish. At least they were state champs in California.

1962 — After defeating Oklahoma in the opener, the Irish lost the next four and ended up 5-5. Kuharich resigned several months later after four seasons.

1963 — Interim coach Hugh Devore almost won a California state title, as Kuharich did in 1960, by defeating USC and UCLA. Alas, he finished 2-7, including a loss to a third California team in Stanford.

1978 — Easily the best Notre Dame season after a 1-2 start, which even was 0-2 after home losses to Missouri (3-0) and Michigan (28-14). The defending national champions with Joe Montana at quarterback navigated through the nation’s most difficult schedule to finish 9-3, won the Cotton Bowl over Houston (35-34) and placed No. 7 in the final Associated Press poll (and were No. 6 in coaches’ rankings).

1981 — Gerry Faust’s rocky debut season resulted in a 5-6 ledger, the first losing season for the Fighting Irish in 18 years.

1983 — Rated preseason No. 1 by Sporting News, Faust’s Irish lost at home to Michigan State (28-23) and then at Miami (20-0), which would win the national title, after romping 52-6 at Purdue to open the year. Notre Dame finished 7-5 after defeating Boston College, led by quarterback Doug Flutie, in the Liberty Bowl.

1985 — The end of the Faust era finished the way it began: a 1-2 start with the setbacks to Michigan and Purdue (and then 1-3 after losing a fourth straight contest to Air Force) en route to a 5-6 mark.

1986 — Lou Holtz’s inaugural season actually dropped to 1-4 at one point before ending up 5-6, with five of the losses totaling 14 points.

1997 — Just like Faust and Holtz, new head coach Bob Davie started off 1-2, and also was 2-4 after six games. The 7-6 campaign ended with a 27-9 Independence Bowl loss to LSU.

1999 — Clock management issues led to the 1-2 start (1-3 a week later) in losses at Michigan (26-22) and Purdue (28-23). The Irish finished 5-7.

2003 — The magic of head coach Tyrone Willingham’s 8-0 start his initial season a year earlier quickly faded with 1-3 beginning in year two, including a 38-0 loss at Michigan. Notre Dame concluded with a 5-7 record.

2010 — Just like Faust, Holtz and Davie, the Kelly era began 1-2 after 11th-hour losses to Michigan (28-24) and Michigan State (34-31 in overtime) to drop it to that record (and 1-3 following a loss to Stanford). The Irish did close strong with a four-game losing streak to finish 8-5. It definitely played better by November.

2011 — Five turnovers apiece in losses to South Florida (23-20) and Michigan (35-31) before defeating Michigan State led this 1-2 start under second-year head coach Kelly. The season ended 8-5 again after an 18-14 loss to Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl.

Unfortunately, Kelly now has tied Faust and Davie for most 1-2 or 0-3 starts by a Notre Dame coach with three each.

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