Brian Kelly's 'Quiet' Record
The retirement at the end of last season by Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer (279 career wins) and the abrupt departure/retirement of South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier (228 career wins) suddenly put Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly atop all current Football Bowl Subdivision coaches in career victories.
However, there is a caveat.
Kelly was 118-35-2 (.768) at Grand Valley State from 1991-2003, followed by 19-16 (.543) at Central Michigan from 2004-06, then 34-6 (.850) at Cincinnati from 2007-09 and 55-23 (.705) at Notre Dame the past six years for a 226-80-2 (.737) total.
The next five on the list for most wins among active coaches were:
• Texas State’s Dennis Franchione (213-135-2) — This includes an 80-19-2 career record outside the FBS at stops such as Southwestern, Pittsburg State and Southwest Texas State. The former TCU, Alabama and Texas A&M head coach, who is now 65 years old, has been at Texas State since 2011. He resigned last December.
• Kansas State’s Bill Snyder (193-101-1) — Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015, Snyder will turn 77 this October. He retired after the 2005 season, only to return to the Wildcats in 2009 while making them one of the great turnaround stories in college football annals.
• Alabama’s Nick Saban (191-60-1) — He will turn 65 on Halloween and, like maybe Snyder this year, will cross the 200-win mark in 2016.
• Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops (180-46) — The head coach of the Sooners since 1999, he might become the last of the Mohicans in college football coaching from the perspective of coaching at one school — especially a traditional power — for at least 20 years.
• Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson (168-83) — This included a 62-10 record at then Division 1-AA Georgia Southern.
It is not an apples-to-apples chart because whereas coaches such as Saban, Stoops and Snyder have coached only at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, Kelly’s total includes Division II Grand Valley State. Kelly had more years at GVSU (13) than in the FBS (12). The total in the FBS will be matched this season with his seventh year at Notre Dame.
If Kelly does indeed coach the duration of his six-year extension signed earlier this year, and averages 10 to 11 wins per season (after averaging nine his first six years), he will close in on the rare achievement of 300 college football wins at any level that has been achieved by only a dozen coaches.
In the past decade from 2006-15 in which Kelly actually has coached at the FBS level, his 98-33 record for a .748 winning percentage does put him in good company. The 98 wins represent the seventh-most victories during that time. Leading the way is Washington’s Chris Petersen’s 107 (92-12 at Boise State while a more level 15-12 at Washington). He is followed by the 105 from Saban and Ohio State’s Meyer — although both achieved it only nine years, with Saban in the NFL in 2006 and Meyer taking a sabbatical in 2011.
Also ahead of Kelly the past 10 seasons are Stoops (104), LSU’s Les Miles (101) and TCU’s Gary Patterson (100).
The missing element for Kelly that the top 6 all have is at least one major bowl win.