Trust Me, Brian Kelly Is Notre Dame's Next Knute Rockne

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- In this city that gave birth to Studebaker cars, Junior Walker and the All-Stars, Singer sewing machines and myself, I grew up in the 1960s watching Ara Parseghian threatening to walk barefoot downtown across the St. Joe River. We even share the same alma mater of Miami (Ohio) University, and with my eyes always as wide as my smile, we've often chatted during the past three decades.

I'm also close to Lou Holtz. Not only was I among the handful of reporters to conduct his first interview as Notre Dame coach, I joined those invited to his house for a barbecue two days before his No. 2 Irish won that 1993 Game of the Century against No. 1 Florida State.

Knute Rockne was a little before my time.

So was Leahy.

That said, the more I huddle with Brian Kelly (which has been three times in the last year), the more I know he is within a leprechaun's little finger of turning the Big Four of coaches at Notre Dame into a quintet.

It didn't hurt that, after 13 seasons of mostly fundamentally shaky teams during the eras of Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis, the Irish spent Kelly's debut looking crisp last Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium against in-state rival Purdue. One turnover. Two penalties. And the Irish also won. They'll try to repeat that trifecta of efficiency at home on Saturday against a rising Michigan team.

Moore talks Brian Kelly from South Bend. The point is, Kelly gets it. At 48, and as somebody who was raised in a Boston-area home that bled blue and gold, he gets everything about where the Irish were, which was absolutely clueless without an identity, and where they need to be -- which is back to the days of Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz, all members of the College Football Hall of Fame, all owners of national championships.

Speaking of Parseghian, he was Kelly, because he also inherited a Notre Dame program in free fall in search of past glory. He likes to tell the story of when he first felt those ghosts and shadows of the Fighting Irish. He was driving down Notre Dame Avenue in 1964 on his first day as their head coach, and shining up ahead was the Golden Dome.

That's when Parseghian shivered.

When did Kelly shiver?

He paused, sighing, then said, "I think when I stepped in front of the number of media we had for my press conference (in December 2009), and I looked up and saw the throngs of media, and that's when I said to myself, 'Do you know what you got yourself into here?'"

After laughing, Kelly added, "The media was larger than any team meeting that I ever had. That probably was the time that I realized, 'you're' -- for lack of a better word -- 'you're in the show now.'"

Yeah, Kelly gets it, because he turned his awe into action by setting the foundation for befriending Parseghian, who still lives in town. "It started with notes back and forth, a couple of phone calls. I had never met him, and I had no relationship with him at all," said Kelly, who has been around for more than two decades as a college football head coach with splendid results.

In fact, during Kelly's stops at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan and Cincinnati, he won six various Coach of the Year honors, a couple of Division II national championships and nine conference titles. But he never coached at Notre Dame, which Parseghian did majestically for 11 years along the way to two national championships while never losing more than twice during a season.

Said Kelly, of his first meeting with Parseghian, "I went out to his charity fund raiser out in Tucson, and I flew back with him, spent about three-and-half hours on the plane with him and just talking head coaching football at Notre Dame. That was a very powerful time for me."

So powerful that Kelly invited Parseghian to speak to his Irish players after a practice, and I'm sure there will be other such Ara moments in Kelly's world in the near and distant future.

Which brings me to this: There always is the image and the reality in these situations. And Kelly once was me -- somebody who studied Parseghian only through a television screen. So what's it like for Kelly to deal with a 87-year-old icon who still hasn't lost his captivating voice or that charismatic look up close and personal?

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Sounds like Kelly, already famous during Notre Dame practices for his dominating speaking style.

Bullhorns are for other coaches.

One moment, Kelly is screaming so loudly that his players are wishing to run for cover to keep the hard words from landing on their heads. The next, Kelly is talking in the soothing tones of Mister Rogers. Just like Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz, Kelly knows when to turn the volume up or down on the stereo system inside his mouth.

And just like Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz, Kelly is fanatical when it comes to details. "Today is a day where we demand -- especially our quarterback -- to be on target with every throw, every check," said Kelly after Thursday's practice. He also had his team doing wet-ball drills weeks before they continued to do so during the last few days to prepare for a predicted rainy Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.

And just like Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz, it didn't take long for Kelly to evolve into a darling of the Irish Nation.
When Kelly entered a sports bar on campus Thursday night to do his weekly radio show, the place exploded. There was a standing ovation along with a continuous roar and chants such as "Brian Kelly (clap, clap -- clap, clap, clap)." That's because Kelly is considered warm, engaging and comfortable in settings with Notre Dame folks. In contrast, his predecessors (Weis, Willingham and Davie) were viewed as cold, distant, boring, disingenuous or a combination of the four.

Kelly gets it, all right. Now all the guy has to do is win throughout his Notre Dame career -- while staying in the hunt for a national championship and capturing the thing at least once or twice.

That's all.