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Hot Seat Watch, Week 1: 5 coaches who need to win

By Charles Rahrig V

SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is seen during the game against the Stanford Cardinal at Notre Dame Stadium on October 15, 2016 in South Bend, Indiana. Stanford defeated Notre Dame 17-10. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is seen during the game against the Stanford Cardinal at Notre Dame Stadium on October 15, 2016 in South Bend, Indiana. Stanford defeated Notre Dame 17-10. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 26: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish argues a call in the first half of the game against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 26, 2016 in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 26: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish argues a call in the first half of the game against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 26, 2016 in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

1. Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly got his one pass after a terrible season at Notre Dame last season. He certainly isn’t about to be awarded two terrible seasons in a row. With the history of the program, they’ll be having their eyes on candidates out there if they aren’t already browsing.

Everything that could go wrong seemingly went wrong for the team last season. Now, they have to get things turned around this year and mediocre isn’t going to save their head coach’s job. Definitely not at Notre Dame.

They open the season against the Temple Owls. It’s hard to say there is a must win when it comes to Week 1 and the hot seat, but this is it. If they go out and drop the season opener to Temple, any and all confidence in Kelly will be zapped from the building.

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Not only do they need to defeat Temple, but they need to come out and make a statement. A close game isn’t going to ease the feelings about the rest of their schedule and it certainly won’t make the questions go away.

Kelly knows what he stands to lose with another bad season. This is a true test of adversity that faces and it’s going to be interesting to see how his team responds for him. For his sake, it better be a big win over Temple.

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