It has long been rumored that should Brian Kelly elect to move on from Notre Dame someday, the NFL would be his next stop.
This morning, radio guys at 670 The Score share that Kelly has emerged as a "coach of interest" in the Bucs search to replace Dirk Koetter. The report adds that team ownership is prepared to offer their next head coach an annual salary in the $10 million range.
In 2018, Kelly led Notre Dame to the College Football Playoff and an undefeated season after eventually losing to Clemson to end their year.
In South Bend, Kelly is 81-35 overall. Combine that with head coaching stops at Division II powerhouse Grand Valley State (118-35-2), Central Michigan (19-16), and Cincinnati (34-16) and Kelly has proven he can win big everywhere. At Grand Valley State, he led the program to back-to-back national titles in 2002 and 2003 before leaving for Central Michigan, where he quickly turned the Chips program around, going 9-4 in his final season in 2006. In three full seasons at Cincinnati, Kelly hit the double digit win mark each season from 2006-09 before landing the head coaching job with the Irish heading in 2010.
He has led the Irish for nine seasons now, led them to one national title game (2012), as well as this year's 30-3 loss in the College Football Playoff to Clemson.
He's 134-57 as a Division I head coach, not counting the vacated wins in 2012-13 by the NCAA.
Kelly's success at the college level means the Bucs likely won't be the only team expressing interest this off season, and with 8 open NFL jobs at the moment, we'll see how happy Kelly is leading one of college football's blue bloods in the coming weeks as more interest and rumors swirl.
The Tampa Bay Times have since shared that they're hearing that that Kelly is not a candidate...
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.