CHICAGO — Brian Kelly is glad the questions about his place in Notre Dame history are, well, history.
Months of inquires about how Kelly views his imminent move past Knute Rockne as the Irish’s all-time winningest head coach (and his same answer to them) will cease now that he has finally done it.
That 106th career victory to push him into the top spot came at its earliest possible point this year. Kelly needed four wins to pass Rockne. Four games into Notre Dame’s 2021 season, the No. 12 Irish are 4-0 after a 41-13 takedown of No. 18 Wisconsin Saturday at Soldier Field.
The celebration of Kelly’s new place in Notre Dame history was subdued. He shook Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst’s hand, got a Gatorade bath from fifth-year senior captains Drew White and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, gathered with the team in the end zone to sing the alma mater and trotted off the field.
“I’m just glad it’s over with,” Kelly said, shaking his head in relief.
Notre Dame’s raucous postgame locker room party that included a not-so-subtle playing of Wisconsin’s adopted anthem “Jump Around,” then, had little to do with his milestone. It was more about enjoying a stirring win that highlighted many of the reasons he has reached this point and added even more intrigue to the rest of the Irish’s season.
“It wasn’t something we preached, but something we knew in the back of our heads,” senior receiver Kevin Austin Jr. said. “We went into this game knowing what it could mean. It was a big, big accomplishment for Coach Kelly and for our team being able to do that for him.”
Kelly understood his 12th season at Notre Dame would involve some in-season development and discovery given the amount of turnover at important positions on the field and on his coaching staff. An uneven 3-0 start revealed more areas that needed work and needed defining than he may have anticipated. Even after beating Wisconsin, some of those remain problem areas and might be that all year.
“Everybody’s trying to peg teams early on, like, ‘Who are they?’” Kelly said. “We’re still trying to figure ourselves out. I just know it’s a resilient group that believes we’re going to win.
“Somebody might come in and take that away one week, but we told them we’re all in with this team in terms of preparing each week and taking our best shot.”
Notre Dame’s grasp of itself can still become firmer, but this nailbiter-turned-laugher illustrated its capability of growth from September through November. Notre Dame isn’t flawless, but it is offering evidence the ceiling remains high. And Kelly will enjoy the challenge of trying to reach that height more than reflecting on his own career’s new heights.
“They have a long way to go and they’re getting better each week, but I’m having fun coaching them,” Kelly said. “They’re not perfect by any means, but they’re going to be better in November. That’s the nice part about it. That’s what energizes you as a coach.”
Given the progress through four weeks, it’s not a reach to believe him.
Concerns about the defense have quieted after it quieted Wisconsin’s potent rushing attack and drew the curtains on the victory with two interception returns for touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Wisconsin averaged 2.6 yards on 28 carries, was 1 of 14 on third down, completed just 18 of 41 pass attempts and committed five turnovers.
“We just needed to tap the brakes early on about our defense,” Kelly said. “It takes some time to get everything in. There are layers to our defense.”
Elsewhere, a disjointed day from the wide receivers vs. Purdue the week before looks more like an anomaly. Graduate student Jack Coan’s average day and third-quarter “soft-tissue injury” cast a little doubt on the quarterbacks, but sophomore backup Drew Pyne’s successful pinch-hit appearance (6-of-8 passing for 81 yards with one touchdown) prevented uncertainty from becoming full-blown concern.
Notre Dame saw firsthand confirmation it could trust Pyne. A 4-4-3 defense that coordinator Marcus Freeman hadn’t used before helped shut down Wisconsin’s run game. Junior cornerback Cam Hart responded to not starting for the first time this year by intercepting two passes.
Sophomore running back Chris Tyree returned a kickoff for a touchdown, a weapon Notre Dame finally decided to unleash after just one return attempt through three games. The Irish also played two left tackles and two left guards by design.
It’d help if the offensive line becomes part of this trend of in-season growth and successful on-the-fly tactics, but the Irish will take the progress and new ways to win wherever they show up.
How Notre Dame processes everything it learned Saturday remains to be seen as it heads further into the toughest stretch of its schedule. What is clear, though, is this season that began with uncomfortable hints it might be a rebuild and not a reload has changed tune the last two weeks because of some clear development and internal discovery.
Those are two hallmarks of Kelly’s post-2016 reboot that has now launched him into Notre Dame history five years after he skirted too close to losing his job. And two tenants of his program he’s more than willing to indulge in discussion about.
“I get more joy in watching the development of Drew Pyne go in there and Chris Tyree,” Kelly said. “That’s why I do this. You don’t do it for 31 years because you’re trying to beat Knute Rockne’s record. No disrespect to Knute, but I’m just glad it’s over with and we can move on to trying to beat Cincinnati.”
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