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Brian Kelly came to Notre Dame as a sort of Urban Meyer Jr. He was master of the spread, having won 34 games in three seasons and led the sixth-best passing attack in the country at Cincinnati in 2009. Those Bearcats were fourth in scoring, won 12 games and weren't stopped until a Sugar Bowl loss to Florida led by -- of all people -- Urban Meyer.

The moment has not been lost on college football in the decade-plus since then. Kelly had taken Meyer's alma mater to a place even Meyer -- a former Cincinnati defensive back -- had to envy. It sure as hell got Kelly the Notre Dame job.

"He was so advanced when he got to Cincinnati [more than] really anyone I've been around from an offensive standpoint," former Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike told CBS Sports. "We were trying to run 100 plays a game. At the time, that wasn't what college football was. Really, no one had seen that.

"When he got hired, you saw the flashes of that at Notre Dame, but I think he realized from experience in those big games that no matter what your offense does when you get to the highest level, you have to be able to possess the ball. You have to be able to stop other teams."

Eleven years after that Sugar Bowl, Meyer is in a Fox studio. Kelly is on the brink of a second College Football Playoff berth in three years at Notre Dame. The only common denominator now is their own successes. One is a coach. The other one talks about them.

Kelly may have cashed in that offensive prowess to get one of the best jobs in the country, but it's taken him all of those 11 years to install a lasting culture and identity. Watch Notre Dame play, and it is not Meyer's Florida. It is what Alabama used to be: physical, run the ball, play defense with an above-average game manager at quarterback.

If anything, Notre Dame is much better positioned to face Alabama in the postseason this time. The Fighting Irish were run out of the building by the Crimson Tide eight years ago in the BCS Championship Game. The same thing happened against Clemson two years ago in the College Football Playoff semifinal. Notre Dame might lose a next meeting to either next month -- or Clemson on Saturday -- but its chin won't be sagging.

"You could hear it out there, the physicality -- it was real," Kelly said in 2019 after a six-point loss at Georgia that said as much about the Irish as it did the Bulldogs. Notre Dame had walked into the belly of the SEC beast that night and lost, but it left some calling cards: flesh, blood and fight.

"Quite frankly, when I came to Notre Dame, I was trying to fit an offense to the players that were here in place," Kelly said this week. "We've evolved. … You can see it's built on a strong running game, the ability to still spread the field but to be physical at the line of scrimmage. And it's matching what our philosophy is on defense."

No. 2 Notre Dame has more than a plan going into Saturday's ACC Championship Game against No. 3 Clemson. It has a foundation.

This has already become one of the most decorated Irish squads in years. Left tackle Liam Eichenberg -- an Outland Trophy finalist -- is poised to become the program's third first-round draft choice on the offensive line since 2018. The line has been an Irish border wall; it is second nationally allowing quarterback Ian Book an average of 3.21 seconds from snap to throw. Running back Kyren Williams -- a Doak Walker Award semifinalist -- is one of only nine 1,000-yard rushers in this shortened season.

It's not just the offense that Kelly decided was going to bloody your lip. The defense has two semifinalists for national defensive player of the year (safety Kyle Hamilton and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah). The unit is second nationally in sacks and top 20 in opponent third-down conversions, yards per rush and passer rating.

To beat Notre Dame, you first have to survive getting beat up.

"If they can dictate and control a game, they can play with anyone," CBS Sports analyst Brady Quinn said. "It goes back to what can they recruit. If they can recruit offensive linemen, if they can recruit tight ends, if they get a running back who is special and a quarterback who can take care of the football, they can do a lot with that."

Pike has seen the transformation from Cincinnati where he is a sideline reporter on the Bearcats' broadcasts.

"As a coach, he sat back because he had been at the mountaintop a couple of times and taken Notre Dame to place that was back at the top of the football world," he said. "They didn't have good showings in those games, and I think he realized, 'I can win games with the style I have. I can try to win championships with this defense and being able to run-the-ball type of style.'"

For Kelly, a coaching maturation -- at age 58 -- has wound its way through tragedy, triumph and tears. Student videographer Declan Sullivan died on Kelly's watch. An NCAA investigation resulted in an angry rebuke of the governing body by Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins.

Maybe Notre Dame changed Kelly as much he changed Notre Dame. At Cincinnati, he was the fun coach running 90-minute practices after previous coach Mark Dantonio had dragged the Bearcats through 3-4 hours of drills.

"Brian was calling the plays back then," Pike said. "He was in almost every quarterback meeting with us -- very hands on at practice with the offensive side of the ball. … Even if you messed up at practice, he didn't want to talk about it then. He wanted to move on to the next play."

You can hide at Cincinnati. At Notre Dame, whether you like it or not, you're a celebrity. Sometimes it doesn't go well. NBC cameras used to love zooming in on the red-faced Kelly tearing into an Irish coach or player after some misdeed. It didn't matter that every coach worth his whistle loses his mind at one time or another. Kelly just happened to do it what seemed like often and in public on national television.

"I always laughed at seeing that because it was made into a little bit of a big deal," Pike said. "My comment was, 'Did you ever watch [yourself]?' That's the kind of relationship we had. His energy levels were kind of how the team [knew] what was going on. He also had a balance."

"Probably too much was made of it," said Quinn, a Notre Dame quarterback from 2003-06. "I think it's hard for any coach when you take over a program and you're trying to put your fingerprint on it. It's hard to create change unless you shock the system. Maybe that was part of the stress of being the Notre Dame coach. Over time, he's grown in that way, too."

Throw it all in a blender of judgment and something had to change after a 2016 season in which Notre Dame went 4-8. Since then, by several accounts, Kelly has been more hands off, trusting his staff and delegating more.

Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees was handed the keys to the car at the tender age of 27 this season after coaching Notre Dame quarterbacks from 2017-19. Clark Lea was only 35 when he came to Notre Dame as linebackers coach in 2017. A year later, he was defensive coordinator. After leading a unit that is sixth-best among Power Five programs in 2020, Lea this week became Vanderbilt's new coach.

"I think it was more of an awakening," Quinn said. "What [Kelly] needed to do to adapt as a head coach. It's hard sometimes for guys to take their hands off and trust their coordinators."

Since that 2016 downturn, the Irish are on their best four-year run (43-6) since 1988-91 under Lou Holtz (43-7). Another win this season and Kelly will own the most Notre Dame victories in history over a four-year span.

"You look at '16, it was still my 25th year [in coaching]," Kelly said. "I think everybody has to, you know, be humble as a leader and look at what you know [are] areas they need to grow in. I ask our players to be humble, but if the head coach can't be humble … you know you're not going to get from your players."

In this 11th season, Kelly has never been more entrenched in South Bend, Indiana. A contract extension signed in September will take him to 2024. If he stays that long, the speculation perhaps will be more about retirement than what's next. In 2023, Kelly would pass Knute Rockne for longest tenure at Notre Dame. Three more wins would tie for Rockne for winningest coach.

If the three come this season, Notre Dame will be winning its first national championship since 1988.

"So many coaches have this set way of, 'Hey this is the style we're going to play.' I think he has transformed into saying, 'Hey, this is the team we have this year. This is what we're going to do more of,'" Pike said.

There is the contention among some that Notre Dame wouldn't be at this point without playing in the ACC. COVID-19 mandated a safe harbor for an independent with its schedule falling apart. In the BCS era (since 1998) it also became obvious that, as an independent, Notre Dame has to win out to make the CFP. That's not necessarily true this season. Notre Dame has been so dominant that playing that extra "data point" in the ACC Championship Game could mean the Irish can "afford" to lose on Saturday.

They already own the season's best win. That double-overtime triumph over then-No. 1 Clemson on Nov. 7 was a nationally-televised indicator of what Notre Dame has become. Pounding a Tigers defense that was missing several starters, the Irish ran up 519 yards.

It was one of the most dominant double-overtime wins you'll see. Clemson's running game hasn't been as productive since.

"We're not an easy out," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said that night after his team's 36-game regular-season winning streak was broken. "Notre Dame, man, you just tip your hat to them."

Given that recent history, if the Tigers win the rematch Saturday, how do you put one team in -- or keep one out -- of the playoff without the other?

"I think both teams leave with a feeling of confidence, though Clemson is not a team that needs confidence," Kelly said. "They've been the king of the ACC for a number of years."

No matter what happens Saturday, Clemson's dynastic run is likely to continue. Meanwhile, this season will be a fond conference one-and-done memory for Notre Dame. The hope now is what has been established on the field is not so fleeting.

"He's called games to their style and what their identity is," Quinn said. "That's been one of the biggest differences. It maybe took him a while to recruit to what they needed to continue to improve their identity. You look at why they're in this position right now is because their offensive line [and] the type of players they're able to get on defense."

Not exactly Meyer in terms of style for Kelly, but the Irish coach is not exactly done yet, either.