Brian Kelly has already beaten Dabo Swinney once this month, winning the Home Depot Coach of the Year Award over the Clemson head coach. Kelly will receive the award tonight during ESPN’s Home Depot College Football Awards (7 ET).
Losing two top-10 draft picks, a defensive coordinator and an esteemed offensive line coach, then losing a third offensive lineman and possible All-American to a season-ending injury, all while navigating a quarterback change en route to an unbeaten season certainly warrants some postseason honors. Swinney himself referenced Kelly as the coach of the year Sunday afternoon. The Notre Dame head coach deferred that praise right back to his Dec. 29 opponent.
“Dabo is good at deflecting that. I think Dabo should get it,” Kelly said. “There’s so many candidates. Coach (Bill) Clark at UAB, there’s a program that for two years was not playing football two years ago. So there’s a lot of deserving candidates.
“I didn’t get into this business to get coach of the year, so that’s great that [Swinney] said that. I think he’s done an incredible job. I think (Alabama head coach) Nick Saban has done an incredible job.”
Kelly has won the honor three times (2012, 2009), the only coach to win it multiple times.
He may not be the only Irish name winning honors tonight. Junior cornerback Julian Love is a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award recognizing the country’s best defensive back. Love beat Georgia cornerback Deandre Baker and LSU cornerback Greedy Williams in a fan vote, getting him at least that added tally as ballots were counted.
Initially, Love wanted no part of that fan vote, but certain voices in his ear prevailed.
“It kind of was uncomfortable for me at first to really openly campaign for votes, for the fan vote aspect,” Love said. “It was definitely weird, and it was my mom calling me, and my girlfriend telling me, ‘Why not go all out? You’re in it for a reason. Why not do all that you can, text everybody that you can to see if people can spread the word?’”
Thus, Love took to social media and pulled in nearly 100,000 votes.
Fifth-year center Sam Mustipher is a finalist for the Rimington Trophy given to the nation’s best center, along with Alabama’s Ross Pierschbarcher and North Carolina State’s Garrett Bradbury, while fifth-year linebacker Drue Tranquill has already been named the Wuerffel Trophy winner for his work on and off the field.
Congratulations to the 2018 @WuerffelTrophy Winner, @DTranquill.
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 4, 2018
The Wuerffel Trophy honors exemplary community service, athletic and academic achievement. #GoIrish ☘️ #uNDefeated pic.twitter.com/o9Hs2pbtTw
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