Leftovers & Links: A precedent for Notre Dame coaches improving in their second seasons

Though an independent, Notre Dame’s schedule does not change much on a year-to-year basis. The Irish have kept USC, Stanford and Navy on the annual schedule, three games that director of athletics Jack Swarbrick has long upheld as non-negotiables in his schedule-making. That may change in the future as the Big Ten adds USC and constant consternation around the Pac-12 persists, but for now, it remains the case.

Notre Dame’s five-team ACC draw each year usually focuses on if Clemson is or is not on the schedule, but the collective quality of the five ACC teams does not vary much. Back when that rotation was unofficially more Big Ten-focused — leaning heavily on Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue — that same premise of scheduling consistency was valid.

Thus, there is some logic to comparing the historic trends of Irish coaches’ progress in their second seasons compared to their debuts.

And since Ara Parseghian brought back stability to Notre Dame after Joe Kuharich’s abrupt springtime departure (60 years ago last month) led to a one-year interim gig for Hugh Devore, Irish coaches have consistently improved in their second seasons.

Of seven coaches following Parseghian, only Tyrone Willingham took a step backward in his second year. If there was any rationale for him being the only coach in Notre Dame history not to be given a five-year runway, going from 10-3 to 5-7 in 2003 was it.

Brian Kelly did not improve, going 8-5 in both 2010 and 2011, but his second season in South Bend included the Irish spending two November weeks in the polls thanks to winning eight of nine in the middle of the season, the kind of concept-proving run that laid the groundwork for Notre Dame’s unbeaten regular season in 2012.

That