The totality of Brian Kelly's nearly seven years at Notre Dame have been marked by multiple scandals, the newest of which involves academic misconduct. As far as Kelly's tenure is concerned, it's another demerit for a coach that has been a part of two bad ones already.
Actually, "bad" doesn't even do them justice. But more on those later.
The NCAA announced on Tuesday that Notre Dame must vacate up to two full years of football victories, including games from its 2012 national title runner-up season, as punishment. The crux of the misconduct stems from a former student athletic trainer who completed coursework for two student-athletes; additionally, the former trainer provided "six other football student-athletes with impermissible academic extra benefits." Some of the athletes took part in misconduct on their own as well.
The NCAA can punish Notre Dame how it sees fit. It can fine the Irish $5,000. It can publicly reprimand the university. It can enforce a two-year show-cause for the former trainer. And, yes, it can take away the wins. Few outside of the NCAA, the school and maybe some fans likely care about the sanctions anyway.
The bigger issue is that Notre Dame is dealing with yet another off-field issue with Kelly in charge. Barring a change of heart from the administration, however, it appears for now as though Kelly will survive this.
There's a reason, of course. Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports said it best: "Kelly is unequivocally Notre Dame's best coach since Lou Holtz." He's a brilliant coach who rose from the Division II ranks at Grand Valley State -- where he won two national titles -- to the pinnacle of college football at Notre Dame.
Still, Kelly's ever-growing legacy is complicated. He has just two seasons of at least 10 wins in South Bend, but he did take the Irish to a national championship appearance; of course, that season is on its way to being vacated now. This year, the Irish are 4-7 and are guaranteed their first losing season since 2007.
There are the controversies, too. There have been since Year 1.
In October of 2010, Declan Sullivan, a 20-year-old Notre Dame student, was killed while filming the team's practice when the hydraulic scissor lift he was on crashed due to high wind gusts exceeding 50 mph. Kelly said in the following days that it was his decision to hold practice outdoors despite the weather conditions.
Notre Dame later released the findings of an internal investigation of the tragedy, taking some responsibility for what happened. As far as Kelly's individual level of responsibility, the university determined that "Culture of the football program" and "decision makers' lack of knowledge regarding lift capabilities" were not contributing factors to Sullivan's death.
| Last three ND coaches | |
| Coach | Winning percentage |
| Brian Kelly | .603* |
Tyrone Willingham | .583 |
| Charlie Weis | .565 |
*=All wins from 2012 and 2013 will be vacated after NCAA infractions
Kelly remarked to CBS Sports in 2014 that "There are many people that will carry that for the rest of their lives."
Then there's the Lizzy Seeberg story published by National Catholic Reporter. According to the report, Seeberg, a student at St. Mary's College was allegedly sexually assaulted by Notre Dame football player Prince Shembo in 2010. She committed suicide 10 days later and Notre Dame's initial M.O. was to stay silent on the matter.
The Seeberg case was, in the big picture, far more about Notre Dame's failures than Kelly individually. However, the coach caught heat -- deservedly so -- because Shembo reportedly "stayed silent about the accusations under orders" from Kelly. Shembo maintained his innocence in the lead-up to the 2014 NFL Draft.
So when put in context, academic misconduct is far down the list of important issues Notre Dame has faced in recent years. However, given its academic reputation, it is an issue the university takes seriously.
Athletic director Jack Swarbrick said as recently as a month ago that Kelly will "lead this team out of the tunnel opening day next year." The "dreaded vote of confidence" is easy to sneer at, but Kelly said Tuesday the misconduct "has nothing to do with me and my status here ... Any negative criticism that's out there about me right now is because we're 4-7."
Sure. In Kelly's defense, he's not the one committing the misconduct. But the best way to describe a coach's role in these types of situations is that while they're not "responsible" per se, they are "accountable."
Over the course of the last six years, Kelly has been at least partially accountable for some dark days at Notre Dame. At some point, Notre Dame has come to a conclusion whether it will hold Kelly (and itself) accountable for those things. If nothing else, he doesn't seem interested in doing it himself.
This isn't the worst moment for Kelly and Notre Dame. Those were years ago, and if there were ever reasons to fire Kelly, they would have been it. This is, however, the latest incident. And they eventually add up quicker than many realize.