Brian Kelly’s career at Notre Dame, following the disaster that was the 2016 season, could safely be described as being in great peril. His team had just gone 4-8, was embarrassed by their rival USC in the season finale, and his program was falling apart. A large portion of the fanbase wanted him fired. Ads were taken out, articles were written. After a promising start to his Notre Dame tenure, he had failed.
He was ultimately retained by athletic director Jack Swarbrick, but it was made clear he needed to make changes, and radical changes at that.