Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly visited Lakewood Ranch. Here’s why.
They were lined up inside Lakewood Ranch Country Club’s clubhouse, waiting to enter a room providing a meet and greet.
For members of the Notre Dame Club of Greater Sarasota, it was a chance to meet Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly up close without having to sneak a peak on a Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind.
Kelly was at the club’s 2020 UND Celebration, but it wasn’t his first time to the area. He previously was honored at Dick Vitale’s annual gala, which raises money for pediatric cancer research for the Jimmy V Foundation, in 2017, and he was presented at a Greater Sarasota Notre Dame Club event in 2013.
He’s also aware of tapping Florida’s rich football talent on the recruiting trail. Notre Dame’s 2020 signing class ranked No. 17 nationally, according to 247 Sports.
“We’ve got geographical recruiters and then position coaches that are certainly throughout the entire state,” Kelly said. “I was on the east side in my time. We had a short window to be out. My window was a couple of weeks and I happened to be on the east side of the state. I’ll be back out, obviously, during the season on this west side and it’s an important area. You’ve got to be in it. There are great players. It becomes cyclical in terms of what your needs are positionally, but again, we need to know where the players are in the state of Florida because you’re always going to find a player that fits your needs.”
But arriving to Lakewood Ranch as Notre Dame’s coach in 2020 isn’t without ups and downs in his tenure, which Kelly noted Friday. There was also the rumor mill that swirled regarding Florida State’s opening following Willie Taggart’s firing. Before the Seminoles locked up Mike Norvell from Memphis to become Taggart’s successor, there were rumors that FSU was trying to lure Kelly from Notre Dame.
They simply weren’t true.
“I’m an Irish Catholic from Boston, Massachusetts, what am I going to do in Tallahassee?” said Kelly about what he wasthinking when his name was attached to the FSU vacancy.
Kelly capped his 10th season with the Irish with a victory in the Camping World Bowl over Iowa State to finish the season 11-2. Kelly followed Charlie Weis’ tumultuous five seasons in South Bend. And in his third season, he led the Irish to a BCS National Championship game appearance. Alabama walloped Notre Dame in that game. The Irish later had to vacate 12 wins from that season as part of 20 victories vacated due to NCAA penalties.
That and the 2016 season when Notre Dame went 4-8 made it seem unlikely Kelly would still be at the helm in South Bend, yet he’s overcome the adversity in continuing to lead the Irish.
“I think the Vegas odds were not with me in ‘13 to come back here seven years later,” Kelly said. “But it’s good to be back here.”
The alumni, boosters, fans and anyone else who waited in line were certainly thrilled have Kelly back in the area. And on Friday, he didn’t just meet them, but also was presented during the club’s luncheon at Lakewood Ranch Country Club.
“This club continues to do great work in this community. It’s about their active involvement in the community for those things that are Notre Dame. Scholarship, right. It’s about the recruitment of the student-athletes and the students that come through this club. They provide the resources for them to continue to finance their education. So they do so many great things in the community and they’re apart of this alumni network, so it brings me back here again. And that’s a good thing for a Notre Dame coach, when he can come back seven years later.”
