Five old Notre Dame Football photos for a Friday — The Reign of Brian Kelly

Happy Friday everyone! I have access to thousands and thousands of Notre Dame Fighting Irish photos, and will never use a small fraction of those on this site. The thing is though — I want to, and I’m going to give it a solid shot as a way to bless the beginning of the weekend throughout the season.

The Irish welcome the Cincinnati Bearcats to South Bend to check out the new home of the coach that helped make Cincy what it is today — Mr. Brian Kelly. The Notre Dame head coach was the hottest name in college football after the 2009 season, but he’s had a long career with an upward trajectory.

NATIONAL CHAMPION

Brian Kelly became a midwest name to know when you watched the NCAA 1-AA playoffs in 2002 and 2003 as the Grand Valley State Lakers took home a couple of titles.

MAC CHAMPION

Brian Kelly almost became the head coach at Eastern Michigan — and I’m still trying to figure out how they screwed that up. Instead, Kelly went to the flattest place on earth to become the head coach of the Central Michigan Chippewas and they won a MAC title in 2006.

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

BEAST CHAMPION

After taking all the MACtion he could handle, Kelly took off for Cincinnati — a proud Big East program that could never get over the hump. BK coached the Cats to two Big East championships and two BCS bowl games — except he didn’t quite make it to the bowl game in 2009 due to religious reasons.

Photo by Doug Murray/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images

BORN AGAIN

In December of 2009, Brian Kelly was announced as the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team just days after the infamous “know any good delis in NY” tweet. The first game he ever coached for the Irish was a win — and he did it in these magnificent shades.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

KING KELLY

It’s really hard to imagine that any of us thought Kelly was going to have this type of success after his first year in South Bend. What type of success? Well, he’s the winningest head coach in Notre Dame football history with 106 — breaking Knute Rockne’s record. He tied the wins record with a win over Purdue, went to Chicago (a sacred place during the Rockne era) to break the record, and now against his old team, Kelly begins to pile on the record — one that will likely never be broken again. All hail BK.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images