Brian Kelly vindicated as Notre Dame falls short in College Football National Championship loss to Ohio State Buckeyes

Brian Kelly took a lot of heat over the past couple weeks as the comments resurfaced following his exit from Notre Dame as he joined the LSU program back in 2022. But as it turns out, he may have been right after all.

Ryan Day and his Ohio State Buckeyes defeated Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 34-23 in the College Football National Championship, vindicating Brian Kelly (for now).

Kelly of course now famously said, “I want to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship.” He didn’t mince his words. Brian Kelly made it clear that after spending several years at Notre Dame he felt that the Irish simply would never be able to win a national championship in this modern age of college football.

Some may think it foolish to suggest that Brian Kelly was vindicated at all by Notre Dame’s loss, but the 34-23 outcome was far, far worse than the score suggests.

Ohio State out-gained the Irish by 137 yards, averaging 7.2 yards per play to Notre Dame’s 5.4. Once The Buckeyes took their first two-touchdown lead near the end of the first half they never let Notre Dame get back within seven points again. And if it weren’t for the Emeka Egbuka fumble in Notre Dame territory, the Irish never likely would have gotten back within even two scores of the Buckeyes.

The Irish should be proud of their efforts and strong season, but it was clear that Ohio State was the far superior team throughout the entirety of the game. Notre Dame fans are far to familiar with this ending. They’re always talented enough to finish with a strong record. They’re perhaps even good enough to make the College Football Playoff. But when the Irish get near the end there’s always a team like Ohio State waiting with much greater talent who knocks them out cold.

This time the knock out punch came in the form of a deep bomb from quarterback Will Howard to the generational five star talent at wide receiver, Jeremiah Smith.

Brian Kelly may be proved wrong one day. Marcus Freeman is a promising young coach and the Fighting Irish continue to recruit at a high level. However, now that Riley Leonard and a huge number of talented veterans are departing it seems Notre Dame will be waiting a long time before they’re back competing for a national championship again.

And while it was impressive that the Irish made it to the National Championship Game at all, everything had to break just right for them to get this far. They faced perhaps the weakest power conference team to make the playoff in Indiana for round one. Then Notre Dame was fortunate enough to play a Georgia Bulldogs team without their starting quarterback in the quarterfinals. Their hard fought victory against Penn State in the semifinals was quite impressive, despite the ugly offensive performance overall. Still, everything had to break just right.

No matter the result, Brian Kelly was always going to continue to receive hate from Notre Dame and college football fans everywhere for his reckless comments. However, the sad truth is that his words might simply just be true.

Both Notre Dame and LSU will look to reload this offseason to get back to the College Football Playoff in 2025. Kelly and his Tigers already have the top Transfer Portal class in the nation. Notre Dame currently ranks outside the Top 50 in consensus transfer class rankings. It will be interesting to see who gets back to the big game first.