One of the most successful coaches in Notre Dame football history was not satisfied with the decision of someone who can be identified by the same descriptor.
Lou Holtz, the last coach to win a national championship at Notre Dame in 1988, sounded off on Brian Kelly, Notre Dame’s all-time leader in wins, for leaving the Fighting Irish to become the head coach at LSU.
“You just don’t leave Notre Dame,” Holtz said on The Crowd’s Line. “You don’t go to Notre Dame for the money. My average salary for 11 years was $115,000. Now he’s going to go because of money and all the perks, etc.”
Kelly, 60, signed a 10-year, $95 million contract plus incentives with LSU. The terms of his Irish contract were never disclosed because Notre Dame is a private university, but Kelly was likely not making nearly as much during his 12-year stay in South Bend.
Holtz stepped down from his post at Notre Dame following the 1996 season. He was 59. He didn’t leave straight for another program like Kelly did, though. He took two seasons off from coaching before taking the South Carolina job in 1999.
Holtz obviously had plenty of signature wins in his Notre Dame tenure. He couldn’t have won a national title without them. As for Kelly? Holtz sounded off on that topic, too.
“I cannot think of one marquee win he ever had over a top-10 team other than they beat Clemson when they had the second-string quarterback,” Holtz said. “When Clemson played them again the same year with [Trevor] Lawrence, they dominated Notre Dame.”
Kelly went 4-13 against top-10 teams while at Notre Dame according to ESPN.
Holtz wasn’t finished.
“The other thing that bothered me about him, he never talked about Notre Dame and what really made it great,” Holtz said. “To be part of Notre Dame, you have to talk about the Lady on the Dome. You have to feel the spirit of Notre Dame. You just got to be part of it.
“It’s just something you feel [an] awesome responsibility to the Notre Dame fans but [also] to Notre Dame itself. That never materialized.”
Ironically, Holtz said in his exit interview in 1996 that he had no desire to become the winningest head coach in Notre Dame history. He finished his tenure with 100 wins, five shy of Knute Rockne’s record of 105. Holtz said 25 years ago the record should belong to Rockne “or some other coach in the future.”
That “other coach” wound up being Kelly. Little did Holtz know he’d be speaking on Kelly in this manner all these years later.
“He is an excellent coach and he did a wonderful job,” Holtz said. “He left the program in much better shape than when he first arrived. But to go somewhere for money, I just don’t think that’s the right reason.”
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