Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly has agreed to a contract extension with the school on Friday.
Kelly’s contract was scheduled to be up in 2017. Financial terms of this deal weren’t disclosed. There had previously been speculation that he might leave Notre Dame for the NFL, but this deal is for six years which locks him up through the 2021 season, according to Fox Sports.
“I want to thank Father Jenkins and the leadership of Notre Dame for their confidence in me,” Kelly said, CBS Sports notes. “I coach football because I believe there are few better avenues for impacting the lives of young men, and I am certain that there is no better place to do that than the University of Notre Dame. During the next six years I look forward to continuing to lead a championship caliber program, but more importantly I look forward to continuing to help the student-athletes I coach to achieve greatness as football players, as students and as men who will make a difference in families, communities and organizations they will someday lead.”
Kelly became the coach at Notre Dame in 2009, replacing Charlie Weis. This past season he led the Irish to a 10-3 record and a Fiesta Bowl appearance. He is 55-23 in six seasons with the Irish and has made a Bowl game every year, according to ESPN. Kelly is the first Notre Dame coach to have eight or more wins in each of his first six seasons. In 2012 he led Notre Dame to the BCS national champinship game, which they lost to Alabama. He has a career-record of 226-80-3 in 25 years as a head coach and his .737 winning percentage puts him seventh among active NCAA FBS coaches.
At the end of the 2021 season Kelly will have coached at Notre Dame for 12 seasons, which is the longest tenure of any Notre Dame coach since Lou Holtz coached there for 11 seasons.