Update: Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly issued another statement overnight reaffirming he plans on being Notre Dame's coach in 2017. Kelly previously said he planned on coming back to South Bend following a season-ending loss to USC.

Original story

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick has maintained all season long that coach Brian Kelly would return to South Bend in 2017, but Swarbrick can only guarantee that he has no plans to fire Kelly. He doesn't know what might be in Kelly's plans, and according to one report, Kelly's plans just might involve leaving on his own.

Yahoo's Pat Forde is reporting that Kelly "has reached out through representatives to explore coaching options outside Notre Dame."

Forde's report states that Kelly's desire to see get a closer look at the grass on the other side of the fence has nothing to do with the NCAA's recent decision to vacate 21 of his wins in South Bend because of academic misconduct, and that Kelly began putting feelers out before that decision came down.

Now, if accurate, this would go against what Kelly told reporters following Notre Dame's 45-27 loss to USC on Saturday.

"Oh yeah, absolutely," answered Kelly when asked if he expected to be back next season. "There was some discussion as to why I'm coming back [to campus] early, and I don't believe I'm coming back early because I'm getting fired. Jack and I always meet at the end of the year, and I wanted to do some exit interviews with our players because I hadn't been able to do that."

Honestly, both of these things can be true. Kelly could be exploring options outside of Notre Dame, and finding the options available to him aren't very appealing right now. Or he's just doing that thing coaches do sometimes: not answering questions with total transparency.

Either way, I certainly can't blame Kelly if he wants to look around and see what's out there. I believe Notre Dame's Swarbrick when he says he plans on Kelly returning next season, but just because 2017 is guaranteed, that doesn't mean 2018 is. The simple fact of the matter is that Kelly would enter next season as the coach who just went 4-8 the season before, and that's a very tenuous position to be in at Notre Dame.

Another slow start and Kelly would very likely be shown the door.