Good is not good enough

9 - 3.  Pretty good record, especially after going 4-8 the year before, right?  A lot of people would say looking at the big picture the Irish are heading in the right direction.  While I would disagree.  Let's look at the big picture.   Here is Kelly's record in South Bend; 8-5, 8-5, 12-1, 9-4, 8-5, 10-3, 4-8 & 9-3.  That's a 8.5 - 4.25 overall "big picture" record.  I'm sure many programs would be content maybe even happy to have that kind of winning percentage but this is Notre Dame.

In the Brian Kelly era we have more signature losses than signature wins, that's a problem.  In Bowl games the Irish are 3 - 3 under Kelly and to no surprise not one of those wins were in a major bowl.

Kelly is a good coach I can't argue that however for Notre Dame fans good should not be good enough.   We can't stay on top of the rankings, we can't beat a top 10, hell we can't beat a top 25 team with any consistency.  I hate to say we can't afford to keep Brian Kelly as for one I do like him and two I don't have a solution for a replacement. 

Kelly has probably done enough to save his job at this point, even if the Irish loss their Bowl game.  The question now is what will the future bring.  In the short term next season needs to be better than 2017, simply put either a 10 win season and or multiple wins over top tier teams, anything else it keeps the status quo.