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The Notre Dame AD was not surprised by Brian Kelly's decision to leave.
Jack Swarbrick is the athletic director of Notre Dame. (0:49)
11:28 AM
Brian Kelly informed Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick on Monday night that he would be leaving to become LSU's coach, but he had been anticipating the move.
On Tuesday, he said he was not surprised by Kelly's decision to leave Notre Dame. Kelly, who met with the Notre Dame team Tuesday morning, did not try to get a counteroffer from Swarbrick before he resigned. LSU announced Tuesday that Kelly had agreed to a 10-year contract.
When you work with someone for a long time, there's a sense that there's a certain restlessness. There was a Freudian slip along the way that grabbed my attention. It was a little bit like someone who might be open to a different opportunity, whether that was intentional or not.
Both Lincoln Riley and Kelly were ready for new challenges when they left their previous jobs. The Notre Dame athletic director said the upcoming coaching search won't be like the one 12 years ago when he hired Kelly to fix the program.
Notre Dame's program is the strongest it has been in his 14-year tenure as AD, and Kelly's departure doesn't signal that he felt Notre Dame had reached its ceiling. The only goal that matters for the Fighting Irish is national championships, according to Kelly, the winningest coach in Notre Dame history. He led Notre Dame to the title game of the Bowl Championship Series in 2012 but the Irish suffered a lot of losses.
The team that played the last half of the season is not a gap from the national title contender. I think the team is well-equipped. I think we're one of the best teams in the country. The results of our last four or five games are compelling. I think we can play with anyone in the country. Can we improve? Always. Every team can. We put ourselves in a different position when we chased a lot of the things. Development, youth and depth have put us in a strong position.
Notre Dame won its final seven games and is ranked 6th in the final CFP rankings. There is a chance that an interim head coach will not be named for the playoffs. The interim coach will not be considered for the permanent position if they are elevated to it. On game day for the playoffs, an assistant will handle head-coaching decisions.
There has been a lot of outreach from potential candidates, and the search will start later Tuesday. Notre Dame might be willing to wait until after the playoffs to make the hire, he said.
Sources said that Cincinnati's coach, who has his team positioned for a possible playoff spot, would be a candidate for the Notre Dame job. Iowa State coach Matt Campbell and Notre Dame's defensive coordinator are likely candidates.
"It's about the right person for the job," he said. "When we find the person we think is the right one to lead this program and have the right conversations with him, that's all that matters." That's fine if that happens tomorrow or in a few weeks.
The coach who understands and embraces the unique environment at Notre Dame, can manage staff, and can develop players at a high level is what the coach is looking for. He said that Notre Dame has a plan to upgrade the program's main operations building in the not-too-far-future.
The timing for Kelly's departure isn't ideal, but it's not unusual for coaching changes to happen after the regular season.
"That's a little bit of the dynamic now," he said. Twelve years is a long time at Notre Dame. It's a long time since we had Brian here, but we were well-served to have him. I have contemplated for a while that there had to be an end. We hadn't talked about that before. It's not a surprise in the long-term and near term.
I think this place is ready to move forward.
