After a 2-5 start to a season where some experts had them picked to be a dark horse for the college football playoff, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick shared thoughts on Brian Kelly's job security today with ESPN after many had pegged him to be on the proverbial "hot seat."
"Brian will lead this team out of the tunnel opening day next year," Swarbrick told ESPN.
"Everybody associated with the program is disappointed - the players, first and foremost, the coaching staff, me - because we want to do better, we know we can do better, so there's great disappointment. Having said that, this is a pretty remarkable team in terms of its togetherness and its resiliency. They still come to every practice energized and focused. And as Brian has said repeatedly, they do everything we ask. They give us everything. So from that perspective, we want a different result," Swarbrick later added.
"I can tell you I continue to have complete confidence in Brian. I think you really see what you've got in a coach with how they manage times like this, and I think he has done a great job of it."
Kelly is 57-28 during his time in South Bend, with the best finish coming in 2012 with a loss to Alabama in the national title game before finishing 12-1. Overall, Kelly holds an impressive 228-25-2 record leading the programs at Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Central Michigan, and Grand Valley State - where he led the team to back to back national titles in three consecutive appearances from 2001-2003.
As a reminder, back in January Kelly signed an 6-year extension taking him through 2021.