A statuary moment

 I imagine the website has grown a healthy beard of cobwebs, after all this time. I mean, even the cranks and the Dammit Where's Our National Title types have to be on board now, don't they?

No, I don't imagine firebriankelly.com is much of a going concern these days, now that Brian Kelly has done something that will result in statuary one of these days. Rockne ... Leahy ... Holtz ... Kelly. Yep, they're gonna have Notre Dame Stadium surrounded before this is all done.

See, Kelly went to the summit of Golden Dome Everest yesterday, after Wisconsin unraveled in the last 14 minutes in Soldier Field. Kelly's Irish were trailing the No. 17 Badgers 13-10 before Chris Tyree went cross country for 96 yards on a kickoff return, and then Wisky quarterback Graham Mertz graciously turned it into a blowout with two pick sixes in the last 2:30.

That made the final a somewhat deceptive blowout, 41-13, and gave Kelly his 106th victory as Notre Dame's coach. That puts him one W up on Knute Rockne and makes him the winningest coach in the school's considerable football history.

So, yes, the statuary is coming. And that's maybe a little startling to contemplate considering more than a few of us were doubting any Notre Dame coach would ever again stick around long enough to win so many games.

It was a pessimistic take but not an unreasonable one, given that Notre Dame had burned through four other coaches in the 13 seasons before Kelly stepped into the job. Bob Davie lasted five seasons as Holtz' immediate successor before getting the gate; his successor, George O'Leary, didn't even make it to his first game before Notre Dame booted him for ginning up his resume. 

Then came Tyrone Willingham, who lasted three seasons. Then Charlie "Schematic Advantage" Weis, who got fat on Willingham's recruits for a couple years and then went 16-21 in his last three.

In came Kelly. And 11 years later, he's still there. 

Only Rockne (13 years) has had a longer tenure, and only Holtz, Frank Leahy and Ara Parseghian were there as long. And perhaps that is as much a nod to the tectonic shift in college football realities in the last decade as it is to anything else.

See, as successful as Kelly has been, Notre Dame still is going on 33 years without a national title. Kelly got them to the championship game once, in 2013. Alabama blew out the undefeated and top-ranked Irish 42-14 -- a painful acknowledgment that while Kelly had restored Notre Dame to national prominence, there remained another level that was still beyond its reach.

Nothing that's happened since has altered that perception. Kelly got the Irish back into the national title hunt last January, but Alabama again beat them -- this time in the national semifinals, and this time by 17 points, 31-14.

So under the Kelly regime Notre Dame is there again, but not quite, you know, THERE. The Irish are back to being a  consistent top ten program. Across the last six seasons, they've averaged 9.5 wins; throw out the 4-8 aberration in 2016, and the number rises to 10,6 wins per year.

That's pretty Notre Dame-y, it seems to me. And plenty good enough for statuary.