A few years ago, the idea of Brian Kelly walking back into South Bend would’ve felt like someone showing up uninvited to an ex’s wedding reception. Now, the reaction is more complicated because there’s less fury and more shrugging. Even when the former Notre Dame head coach is reaching out to Marcus Freeman, people are just saying, “I don’t care.”

Jessica Smetana’s comments regarding the situation stand out. The 2016 Notre Dame graduate and co-host of THE ECHOES podcast with Mike Golic Jr. voiced what a lot of Irish fans felt when Brian Kelly bolted for LSU back in 2021. 

“When Brian Kelly decided to leave for LSU, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s dead to all of us now,’” she said. 

Like her, Notre Dame fans defended Kelly for years. The playoff appearances, the double-digit win seasons, the idea that the Irish simply couldn’t recruit at the same level as Alabama or Georgia, all of it mattered. But then he left anyway, and not gracefully either. The unceremonious exit to LSU immediately turned him from the “winningest coach in school history” into the program’s enemy No. 1 — at least for most fans, like Smetana.

“And then he left, and I was like, ‘Screw him,’” Smetana said. “And now that he’s been fired at LSU and has gone through the public humiliation ritual of being fired and the governor of your state saying that you shouldn’t actually get any of your buyout and doing this whole thing, I’m like, ‘I don’t really care anymore.’”

At this point, Notre Dame kind of won the breakup. Brian Kelly left because he believed LSU gave him a better shot at championships. Meanwhile, Marcus Freeman modernized the energy around the program, elevated recruiting, and made the Irish nationally relevant with a national title appearance. And now the fired LSU coach wants to come back to South Bend and reconnect with old colleagues.

“I know there’s still a lot of bitter Notre Dame fans out there about how everything went down,” Smetana added. “But if he wants to go, watch a practice with Marcus Freeman, I guess I just don’t really care anymore.”

And oddly enough, fans are split into two. Unlike Smetana, who’s indifferent, Mike Golic Jr. sounded more forgiving.

“You know, sometime soon we’re going to get the pictures of him back somewhere in South Bend,” he said on THE ECHOES. “I will be interested to see what the response is from the fanbase. I see no reason why he shouldn’t be welcomed back there by a bunch of coaches that do know him at a place where he did do a lot of winning.”

Despite the fallout, you can’t deny Kelly’s impact on Notre Dame. He won 113 games and even passed Knute Rockne on the school’s all-time wins list. But Notre Dame fans never fully bought in because he fell short during big games. He went 23-24 against AP Top 25 opponents in South Bend. Every CFP appearance ended the same way, and somewhere along the way, fans got tired of hearing his explanations. 

There was no accountability because, according to Brian Kelly, it was either the administration, recruiting limitations, depth, or something else. Now, every time the Irish enter a major game, there’s still a fear that they will fall short. But now, Marcus Freeman is changing that mindset. And that’s why Kelly’s planned return became immediately viral.

Brian Kelly wants to reconnect with Notre Dame staff 

Nobody thinks Brian Kelly is coming back to reclaim Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman has a firm grip on his job security. This is more about him trying to reconnect with people he genuinely worked closely with, especially OC Mike Denbrock, who has longstanding ties and was even at his wedding.

“I honestly want to go and spend a little time with guys that coached with me,” he told USA Today. “I want to get to some NFL camps. I’m going to go back up to Notre Dame and see Marcus. I want to see those guys… Reconnecting with the guys that I know, and I want to go see how they’re doing and how they’re doing it. What are the things I can pick up from that?”

Plenty of Notre Dame fans still dislike the way Brian Kelly exited. Many still remember the smugness and the constant sense that the program was operating with self-imposed limitations. The irony is that he may have ultimately done the Irish the biggest favor possible by leaving. Without that departure, Marcus Freeman would never have entered the picture to prove the ceiling was never as low as Kelly made it seem.