Early Look: Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Head Coach: Entering his 30th season as a collegiate head coach in 2020 and 11th year at the University of Notre Dame, Dick Corbett Head Football Coach Brian Kelly brings a championship tradition as the school’s 29th head football coach.
Kelly is the winningest active coach in NCAA Football (all divisions)*. He is the only coach to win The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award (2009, 2012 and 2018) on more than one occasion. Kelly is the fourth-winningest coach in school history*.
His .735 winning percentage trails only Nick Saban among active FBS coaches with at least 15 years of head coaching experience.
Fighting Irish on Offense: Tommy Rees returns to his alma mater following one season as an offensive assistant with the San Diego Chargers where he worked with an offense that ranked tied for seventh in the NFL in passing (262.4), ninth in scoring (25.6), t-12th in yards/play (5.6) and 14th in total offense (356.8). San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers threw for 4,386 yards and 33 TDs, which ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, in the NFL in 2016.
Fighting Irish on Defense: Clark Lea took over as the Irish defensive coordinator coach in 201.
Led Notre Dame’s defense to top-25 FBS rankings in fewest TD passes allowed (7, t-2nd), passing yards allowed/attempt (5.4, t-3rd), pass efficiency defense (100.8/4th), fewest plays of at least 30 yards (12, 4th), fewest plays of at least 40 yards (4, t-4th), fewest total yards/play (4.53, 8th), fewest plays of at least 20 yards (35, 8th), fewest TDs allowed (24, t-8th), fewest plays of at least 50 yards (2, t-8th), points allowed/game (17.3 t-9th) and total defense (331.5, 21st).
Guided an Irish defense that also allowed: 15.0 points/game in its four matchups with AP top-25 opponents, which ranked second-best in the FBS (among schools with at least four such games), 13.7 points/game in its two matchups with current AP top-25 opponents, which ranked second-best in the FBS and 14.4 points/game in its five matchups against FBS teams with a winning record, which ranked second-best in the FBS
