After a decade in which Brian Kelly has, once again, made 10-win seasons, bowl victories and top-five rankings somewhat routine at Notre Dame, it’s easy to forget its previous 15-year run of irrelevance.
Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis combined for a .576 win percentage, one bowl victory and endless talk about how the Fighting Irish would, except in old movies, never matter again.
So make no mistake, Kelly has been a Golden Dome-sent gift for Notre Dame. The Irish are good nearly every year, really good in some, and if nothing else, almost always in the national discussion in both big games and recruiting.