Brian Kelly Gets Dreaded Vote Of Confidence From Notre Dame

Brian Kelly has led Notre Dame to a 2-5 record this year as the Irish have completely fallen apart. Many have speculated that Kelly might have put himself firmly on the hot seat with this season’s horrendous showing. On Friday, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick tried to snuff out those rumors.

Swarbrick told ESPN’s Matt Fortuna the following:

"“Brian will lead this team out of the tunnel opening day next year. “I guess I’d say I wish the perception matched the reality a little better. I understand the perception, but we’ve got to work to alter that perception because it creates noise and gets in the way. But the reality couldn’t be further from it. I’m not going to reveal the nature of the postgame discussion between Brian and the team after Stanford, but that was a discussion between a coach and a team who really care about each other and have a great relationship, and that’s what I get to see every day. What we have to do is try to avoid the situation, which creates a different perception because that perception doesn’t reflect the reality. We have to figure out how to be better at it.”"

While Kelly has drawn a ton of criticism for throwing his players and fellow coaches under the bus and deflecting any criticism from himself, he has gone 57-28 in seven years at Notre Dame. He’s the most successful head coach the school has had in a long time. While getting the dreaded vote of confidence is never good, there’s probably very little chance he gets fired this year.