Reports: Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly faces uncertain future

By The Sports Xchange

Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly reportedly is exploring other coaching options after the Fighting Irish's disappointing season continued with a loss Saturday to the USC Trojans. File photo Marc Serota/UPI

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Brian Kelly sounded like a man who would be returning for his eighth season at Notre Dame following his team's season-ending 45-27 loss at USC on Saturday.

But by late Saturday night, there were rumblings saying that might not be the case.

Yahoo Sports reported that according to sources, Kelly has reached out through representatives to explore coaching options outside Notre Dame. ESPN later posted a similar report.

Notre Dame sources told Yahoo Sports and ESPN Saturday night that Kelly has expressed no desire to leave the school.

Notre Dame finished 4-8 this season, their worst finish since a 3-9 mark in 2007 under Charlie Weis.

In addition, Notre Dame learned this week that the NCAA is vacating 21 in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons for academic misconduct involving eight players.

However, Yahoo Sports said that Kelly's curiosity regarding other jobs was not spurred by the NCAA sanctions and predates that announcement.

"Oh yeah, absolutely," Kelly told reporters Saturday when asked if he expected to be back next season.

Kelly won at least eight games in each of his first six seasons while compiling a 59-31 record, including a 12-1 campaign in 2012.

"One side of me says, 'look, this is my 25th year, I know what I'm doing,''' Kelly said. "But on the other side of it, you can't be surprised that when you go 4-8, that you're going to get those questions asked as well.''