5 reasons Notre Dame should fire Brian Kelly

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Sep 4, 2016; Austin, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong (left) shakes hands with Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly after the game at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports /

2. He’s not winning the big games

Where Kelly is really coming up short is in winning the big game as the Irish’s head coach. In his last 10 games against ranked opponents, Kelly is 4-6. That’s not too bad until you look at his last five: 1-4.

So four wins over ranked teams sounds pretty good, right? Here are the ranked teams Kelly has beaten on the gridiron since 2014. Stanford in 2014, LSU in 2014, Georgia Tech in 2015, and Temple in 2015. The only impressive one of the four is Stanford in 2014.

The win over LSU in 2014 was in a meaningless bowl game in Nashville that LSU didn’t want to play in. Georgia Tech last season went 3-9. Temple has gone back to being a .500 team in 2016.

These aren’t the quality wins that the College Football Playoff Voting Committee is looking for. To make the Playoff, Notre Dame has to crush top-10 teams from Power 5 conferences late in the year.

The Fighting Irish don’t have the luxury of playing a conference schedule with a conference championship to follow. Notre Dame’s wins have to be big and they have to matter. Kelly has shown he can beat the teams he’s supposed to, but can’t rise to the occasion against a worthy adversary.

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