Brian Kelly Rises And Falls In Top Coaching Lists

The Athletic reporters Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel have released their annual Top 25 lists of college football coaches. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly checks in at No. 8 on Feldman’s list, up one spot from last season. He was ranked No. 6 on Mandel's list, which is down a spot.

In the video above I go into detail my issues with Feldman's rankings. Here is what he wrote about Kelly:

“The 58-year-old has had a good long run at a place that often burns guys out after a few years. The Irish are 33-6 in his last three seasons. His teams have gotten blown out a bunch of times on big stages — Michigan beat Notre Dame by 31 last season, Clemson hammered them by 27 the year before and Miami crushed them by 33 the year before that — but overall he’s proven to be one of the best coaches in college football.”

Here is what Mandel wrote about the Irish head coach.

"From the ashes of a 4-8 debacle in 2016, the Irish have risen up to go 33-6 over the past three seasons, the program’s best run since 1988-90 (which included their last national title). Kelly is recruiting as well or better than at any time in his 10-year tenure despite quite a bit of staff turnover the past several years."

It’s hard to dispute what Feldman wrote about Notre Dame getting blown out on a big stage, and I’ve raised this issue myself. My issue with that analysis is he completely ignored that Notre Dame has also been more competitive in a lot of these games, and ignored similar issues with other coaches. The entire tone of his mentions of Kelly were negative.

No mention of Notre Dame's recent win over LSU and Ed Orgeron (who is now ranked No. 4). No mention of the win over Michigan. No mention of a pair of down to the wire games against Georgia.

Feldman, in my view, puts way, way, way too much emphasis on winning at title and not enough on the overall success and consistency of a coach. For example, a year ago Orgeron wasn’t in the Top 25 at all and now he’s No. 4? Really? In one year he became that better of a coach? There was a reason Orgeron wasn’t on the list a year ago, and while Orgeron did a great job last season, winning the title doesn’t automatically mean you’re now an elite coach.

It means you had a great year.

I would argue the same with Jimbo Fisher, who won a title at Florida State in 2013 and is ranked as the No. 6 coach despite having more disappointing seasons than strong ones. The year after Florida State won a title the Seminoles lost to Oregon 59-20 in the College Football Playoff. A year later they lost to Houston in the Peach Bowl by two touchdowns, and in 2016 the Seminoles got destroyed by Louisville, losing 63-20.

A year later he departed with a 5-6 record and he’s gone 17-9 in two years at Texas A&M, and has a 45-23 loss to Alabama, a 47-28 loss to Alabama and a 50-7 loss to LSU.

Yet no mention by Feldman about Fisher getting blown out on a big stage like he did with Kelly, and all those blowouts happened after they won the title.

Mandel has Fisher ranked No. 14, which is far more accurate.

James Franklin No. 3 on Feldman's list is mind blowing. I’ve been very critical of Brian Kelly, but Franklin’s resume doesn’t touch Kelly’s.

Franklin has zero playoff appearances, and while he has done a good job at Penn State and did a quality job at Vanderbilt, Notre Dame has had much better top-level seasons than Penn State and let’s not forget Kelly did things at Cincinnati no coach did before or since he left.

Lists like this also feed into the perceived bias that Notre Dame fans believe the national media has against the Irish. Feldman spent more time talking about Kelly’s blowout losses than the fact he’s won three national coach of the year awards and has twice gotten Notre Dame into a situation where it was playing for a national title.

There was also no mention of the fact Franklin has a 42-7 loss to Michigan (2018), a 49-10 loss to Michigan (2016), a 55-16 loss to Michigan State (2015), a 38-10 loss to Ohio State (2015), a 27-10 loss to Temple (2015) and a very recent bowl loss to Kentucky (2018).

Oh, and Brian Kelly’s win percentage at Notre Dame (.718) is better than Franklin’s at Penn State (.709).