Brian Kelly Shares His Thoughts on Notre Dame, Five Years After His Fly-By-Night Exit

His shock 2021 departure still reverberates.

Brian Kelly seems to be doing some soul searching in the wake of his LSU firing this past season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

As soon as it became public in 2021, the message seemed destined to become infamous.

“Men ... let me first apologize for the late-night text and, more importantly, for not being able to share the news with you in person that I will be leaving Notre Dame,” then-Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly wrote to his players at the time via Pete Sampson of The Athletic. “My love for you is limitless and I am so proud of all that you have accomplished.”

The damage was done, however: Kelly had left for LSU, cut his already creaky reputation with Notre Dame fans to ruins, and ensured hastily appointed successor Marcus Freeman auto-immortality when he led the Fighting Irish to the national championship game in 2024.

On Tuesday, Kelly talked to Sampson as he prepares for a season outside of coaching after his 2025 firing by the Tigers—and revealed what he thinks of the program he left behind.

Kelly remains supportive of Notre Dame, and wants to come back at some point to show support for Freeman

In Jan. `21, Kelly poached Freeman from Cincinnati after he’d coordinated a defense that held opponents to 16.8 points per game in 2020. Although the Fighting Irish’s scoring defense held steady year over year, Freeman continued to garner buzz as a rising star. When Kelly left, Freeman stepped ably into the void, and he’s won over Notre Dame fans in the years since.

“It’s extraordinary that a football coach with no head coaching experience has been able to step in the job and do as well as Marcus has,” Kelly said. “I think that that needs to be said. I had 19 years of being a head coach, and I felt like the water is up to my nose at times at Notre Dame.”

It seems clear that Kelly’s attitude has changed from April 2022, when he told Ralph D. Russo—then with the AP—that he “(wanted) to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship.”

Kelly, for his part, told Sampson and Matt Fortuna on The Independent podcast that those remarks were “mischaracterized.”

“I didn't leave Notre Dame because they couldn't win a national championship,” Kelly said. “Those words never came out of my mouth. What I said is if I'm going to leave, I'm going to go to a place that can win a national championship.”

Even if Fighting Irish fans remain bitter, Kelly expressed to Sampson that he remained a huge fan of Freeman’s.

“It’s important for me to let them know that I’m supporting and I want to support the program and I want that out there and I want to be visible for a day,” Kelly said of a potential return to South Bend, Ind. “I’m not in there to look at what they’re running offensively or defensively, but I just want to show that I have 100% faith and confidence in what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, not that they need me to validate in any way.”

What’s next for Kelly?

Sampson’s piece presented a few ideas: a head-coaching gig at a school a step down from LSU and Notre Dame (“I don’t think I’ve closed any doors in my own mind,”) an assistant coaching gig, and a media role.

Each is notable for a different reason. Kelly has not worked for any program apart from the Tigers or Fighting Irish since 2009, he hasn’t been an assistant since helming Grand Valley State’s defense in 1990, and he’s never had the most media-friendly persona while a head coach.

Most programs, though, would salivate at the chance to hire a proven program-builder with a 200-76 career record in FBS (a top-50 all-time percentage). Like it or not, it seems unlikely we’ve heard the last of Kelly.

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