Notre Dame Football, Brian Kelly Face A Litmus Test In 2021
Every successful college football coach in every offseason faces the challenges of roster reinforcement, assistant departures and support staff shuffling in the same way Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly does in 2021.
Annual attrition and inevitable departures come with the job.
Using these occupational hazards as a backdrop, the roster and staff churn Kelly faces before his 12th season at Notre Dame will provide a thorough foundation check this fall for a program that has won 43 of 51 games since 2016 and has reached the College Football Playoff two of the last three seasons.
Highlighting Kelly’s offseason to-do list:
•Replenish the production and leadership void of quarterback Ian Book — a three-year starter, a two-time team captain and the winningest signal-caller in Notre Dame history.
•Rebuild one of the best and most experienced offensive lines in program history after losing four of five starters, including two all-Americans in left tackle Liam Eichenberg and left guard Aaron Banks.
•Replace unanimous all-American and Butkus Award winner Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah at rover linebacker, and Javon McKinley, the team’s leading wide receiver.
•And lest we forget, Kelly needs to help smooth the transition from departed defensive coordinator Clark Lea to Marcus Freeman.
Clearly, a busy offseason awaits. But undeterred, Kelly insists he’ll stay the course and rise to the myriad challenges in front of him.
“We’re going back to work. We’re going to keep recruiting and we’re going to put ourselves back in this position again,” Kelly vowed, Jan. 1, after the loss to Alabama in the CFP. “… I’m not taking it personal, because these questions keep coming up like we have to reinvent ourselves.”
Fair enough, but with a new quarterback, a rebuilt offensive line, a first-year defensive coordinator, and a 2021 schedule that includes consecutive games against Wisconsin; Cincinnati, which finished No. 8 in the final 2020 AP Poll; at Virginia Tech; then home against improving opponents USC and North Carolina, the art of reinvention might be the only way to survive.
Not since Lou Holtz in 1994 has an Irish coach faced such roster churn from both a production and leadership standpoint as Kelly does this year.
In the six seasons from 1988-93, Holtz went 64-9-1 — a stretch that included a program-record 23-game winning streak, a national championship and two other title near misses.
Not only did Holtz lose both his offensive coordinator (Skip Holtz) and his defensive coordinator (Rick Minter) after the 1993 season, the Irish roster also lost future NCAA and/or NFL Hall of Fame inductees Jerome Bettis, Aaron Taylor, Bryant Young and Jeff Burris, as well as starting quarterback Kevin McDougal, and so many other great players from that 1993 senior class.
Popular belief in 1994 was to keep calm and carry on. Great programs run on autopilot and Holtz never rebuilt, he only reloaded.
Well, not even Holtz could survive his massive staff shift and roster reboot, going 6-5-1 in 1994 and retiring two years after that.
Similar to the roster gut that Holtz faced 28 years ago, Kelly will lose all five of his captains from last season and a defensive coordinator who was regarded as one of the best in the business. Loyal associate head coach Mike Elston — a 17-year assistant under Kelly, a gifted strategist and arguably the best recruiter on the Notre Dame staff – has been mentioned as a candidate for other jobs.
Again, Kelly, who has won 24 straight home games, isn’t making excuses or sewing any seeds of a potential program downturn in 2021.
“I don’t have a unique problem at Notre Dame,” Kelly said. “Everybody’s got the same issue.”
After Notre Dame’s loss to Alabama, Kelly said that “you don’t have to walk around and be the best team every week, you just need to be the best team on that given day.”
But when a head coach faces such an extreme staff and roster rebuild as Kelly does, even Holtz will warn that being the best team on that given day becomes much tougher.
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_, @MasonPlummer_ and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.