Following the disaster that was the 2016 season, Brian Kelly has had to make a lot of bets. Beyond how awful that season was, even if the record was flipped to 8-4, things weren’t working out the way Kelly or the administration had envisioned. The program wasn’t moving forward, it had no real identity, they were just another middle of the pack program with nothing special about it beyond its rich history.
He had to overhaul everything: his coordinators, his strength program, even his own role. A lot of people who cover the program don’t want to give him credit for firing people close to him–he was forced into it they say–but, regardless, the hires he made from then on would either make or break his tenure.