Brian Kelly’s season comes down to Stanford on Saturday.

He will be 9-3 if he beats them, Notre Dame’s best season in years. Arguably, if they win, they should be 11-1 only the defeat to USC was a game they did not deserve to win.

The losses to Michigan and USF were aberrations that would surely never happen again.

Kelly has a similar record to Lou Holtz at the same period in his coaching career at Notre Dame.

Can he go on and win or even challenge for a national championship in the future?

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The signs are good. A victory against Stanford and then in a bowl game would provide the underpinnings of a great year next year, which kicks off in Dublin against Navy on September 1st.

A loss to Stanford, the only truly top team the Irish have played, will show Kelly what else is left to be done.

A victory will indicate that times are changing for the better, finally around South Bend and that Kelly has a secret formula that works.

If he can stop Andrew Luck, the certain No 1 draft choice then he will have done a hell of a day’s work.

The Stanford defense has conceded 142 points over the last few weeks, an average of 35 points a game.

They are beatable if Luck can be stopped, if Rees plays a complete game and Kelly keeps it up tempo.

I think they can do it.