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Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly has the so-called "vote of confidence" from his athletic director, Jack Swarbrick. He's just not happy about it.

At 2-5 and coming off a bye week, the Irish have been one of college football's biggest busts. Naturally, there have been questions about Kelly's job security, which Swarbrick addressed. But speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kelly said he was "disappointed" in the need for a vote of confidence (via ESPN):

"Well I was disappointed actually. But anytime that your athletic director has to come out and say that, as a head coach you're disappointed that any kind of comments like that have to be made. So I didn't ask him, that was his decision, but I clearly understand what he was doing. He was probably sick and tired of being sick and tired, too. But for me it's disappointing, certainly, that you have to make those comments."

Kelly had a 55-23 record at Notre Dame over the past six years coming into the season, averaging about nine wins a season. While that won't always cut it at a place like Notre Dame, it's still nine wins a season. Guessing Kelly will survive one bad year -- he hasn't had a losing record in South Bend -- is a safe bet. So in that way, yes, Kelly has some reason to be disappointed if he feels like his job security isn't even worth addressing.

At the same time, this has been a surprisingly bad year for the Irish. The defense was a mess under Brian VanGorder, who was let go midseason, and Kelly has experimented with using quarterbacks DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire with little success.

Questions about Kelly's job security are going to come up, warranted or not. The "no comment" approach doesn't always help, either. If Swarbrick felt like the best thing to do was issue a short statement debunking murmurs, which he did, then that's his prerogative.

Either way, Kelly and Swarbrick will be ready to move on from this season once it's over.