Written by Teddy Greenstein at Chicago Tribune.com
On the day he walked away from his dream job, Lou Holtz was at a loss to explain it.
Why leave Notre Dame in the midst of another strong season? The Irish were 7-2 and ranked 10th on Nov. 19, 1996.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said repeatedly.
For whom? For Holtz? The university?
“You know when you’re playing golf and your caddie tells you to hit a 7-iron and you think, I’m not Greg Norman, I should hit a 4-iron,” he said.
The point Holtz would later make is that every Notre Dame coach has a shelf life. The best and brightest (Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian and Holtz) depart before being pushed.
Where does that leave Brian Kelly, coach of the nation’s most underperforming team? It’s doubtful the school would fire him a year after a 10-win season and nine months after he signed an extension through 2021.
But perhaps Kelly will realize that it’s just … time.
Time for both parties to move on.
He has lost the fan base, much of which was aghast that he declined to suspend four of the five players involved in the August incident in which marijuana and a handgun were recovered from a car speeding 35 miles south of South Bend.
And there’s word from sources who know several players that, citing Kelly’s uneven leadership style, he has lost the team.
What transpired during and after Notre Dame’s 10-3 “Mud Bowl” loss Saturday at North Carolina State was mystifying. Kelly’s staff called 31 pass plays, netting 37 yards factoring in sacks. When DeShone Kizer threw into a crowd on third-and-goal from the 19, the ball wobbled from his hand and got picked off.
This occurred midway through the second quarter. The staff had plenty of time to adjust.
Notre Dame took over at the N.C. State 22 after a third-quarter fumble. First down: coverage sack. Second down: failed attempt at a screen pass. Third down: incompletion. Justin Yoon had just nailed a 40-yard field goal, but Kelly passed up a 41-yard try on fourth-and-12. Result: pass broken up.
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