Brian Kelly fires back at Notre Dame football haters after Rose Bowl loss
By John Buhler
Brian Kelly has time for all the Notre Dame football haters out there in the world.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish once again came up short in the College Football Playoff national semifinals, as Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame football team fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide, 31-14.
Notre Dame had been undefeated heading into the ACC Championship game before getting boat raced by the Clemson Tigers in Charlotte. The Irish’s defeat was so bad that many people thought the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies deserved to be in over them for the last spot in the field. After Kelly took to the podium postgame, it is clear that Notre Dame is not yet ready to win it all under him.
Asked Brian Kelly about the first next step for Notre Dame after the program got closer to Bama since ’12.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) January 2, 2021
"I'm sorry if you don't like it and if the national media doesn't like it but we're going to go back to work and we're going to put ourselves back in this position again."
ttps://twitter.com/ESPNRittenberg/status/1345177787074797569
Brian Kelly: "We just needed more firepower, quite frankly. That’s it. There is no other wider story than we came up a little short with making a few plays."
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) January 2, 2021
“We think we can get there.”
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) January 2, 2021
Brian Kelly asked about if Notre Dame can get closer to Alabama and Clemson.
“We’re not going away."
Notre Dame simply has to recruit better to be championship-caliber
To date, only five programs have won a national semifinals game: Alabama, the Clemson Tigers, the Georgia Bulldogs, the LSU Tigers and the Oregon Ducks. It is no coincidence that those five programs ended up with the top-five recruiting classes in the 2021 cycle. Notre Dame may have its disadvantages in recruitment, but now is the time for Kelly to truly make this a priority.
Notre Dame had a great season until the Irish went up against teams that regularly land recruiting classes in the top five. What this does for programs like Alabama and Clemson is that their teams do not have to play perfect football to beat a top-tier squad like Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the Irish had to play perfect in the Rose Bowl to advance and they were far from that Friday evening.
Kelly may have work to do on the field, but he must put in even more work on the recruiting trail.
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