On Thursday Night, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat Georgia 23-10 in a game that didn't feel all that close as the Irish dominated Georgia the line of scrimmage. The win moves Notre Dame on to the College Football Semifinal where the Irish will take on Penn State. Given the Coach that's leading the way for Notre Dame, the game taking place in New Orleans, and the buzz around Notre Dame Brian Kelly's name obviously came up.
Following the Game, Fox and Big Ten Broadcaster Joel Klatt took to social media where he praised Marcus Freeman and took a massive shot at Brian Kelly on twitter.
Marcus Freeman took a job that Brian Kelly ran from and has elevated it above where he found it...Well done sir! Great leader with an outstanding culture @NDFootball
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) January 3, 2025
The shot by Klatt is a little unfair for a few reasons, for starters Kelly coached there for 12 seasons before leaving which makes it unfair to say he ran from the job. While Freeman does deserve a ton of praise the fact of the matter is that its unfair to say Notre Dame has been elevated until Freeman wins a National Championship.
While Notre Dame has won two College Football Playoff games, the Fighting Irish are still just in the Semifinal Game. Brian Kelly took the Irish to the National Championship Game in 2012 before losing to Alabama and played in Semifinal games twice once in 2018 and in 2020. Under the current format, Kelly also would've made the Playoff in 2015.
Klatt would later walk back his tweet in a sense but, the point still remained.
Brian did a phenomenal job at Notre Dame...Many, including me, didn't argue with his premise...Marcus just went to work and built something special
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) January 3, 2025
At the end of the day the fact is that Freeman still has work to do to get to where Kelly got Notre Dame. If Freeman can get to the National Championship than the two are in the same conversation while a win in the Title Game would put Freeman above Kelly.