A 2005 graduate of North Alabama where he played tight end, he came to Notre Dame at the age of 34.

He had just one year of experience as an offensive coordinator at Memphis.

With Brian Kelly at the crossroads of his coaching tenure with the Irish following a 4-8 season in 2016, he would place his future into the hands of a baby-faced, relatively unproven offensive coordinator.

How do you like Kelly now?

Twenty-one games into his tenure as Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator, Chip Long has been on the winning end 18 times. His offense – although rivaled by the 2015 team that averaged 34.2 points and 466.4 yards total offense per game prior to his arrival – finally has the balance Kelly was seeking when he made the change from Mike Denbrock as offensive coordinator.

Most importantly, Notre Dame insists on running the football under Long. With the development of Ian Book at quarterback, the Irish have reached a level of balance that Kelly never could quite achieve in his first seven years on the job.

Make no mistake, the improved defense under Mike Elko and now Clark Lea has made a huge difference as well. But with Long, the Irish have returned to the roots of Notre Dame football. Run the football with authority and you’re going to find yourself on the winning end a vast majority of the time.

Asked Tuesday why he pulled the trigger on what looked from the outside to be a risky hire, Kelly had a vision and Long has helped fulfill it.

“(He ran) the style of offense that I wanted to employ, which included the utilization of tight ends,” said Kelly when asked what he saw in Long. “An intuitive play-caller. Somebody that could get us to throw the ball at a high percentage of completion rate. Those things had (eluded) us.”

Yet even Long struggled without the right triggerman at quarterback after shooting out of the gate in 2017 with a powerful rushing attack led by offensive linemen Quenton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey, and running back Josh Adams.

After averaging 41.3 points per game over the first nine contests last year, things bogged down with Brandon Wimbush at quarterback. Notre Dame averaged just 18.2 points per game over the last four to conclude the 2017 season and 23.3 points per game over the first three of 2018. Enter Book – a move Long championed -- who has helped tie it all together.

“You have to have the pieces in place,” said Kelly, referring to the right player personnel. “I thought we had an offensive line and tight ends in place. The wide receivers and the quarterback position had to continue to develop. Obviously, we’ve struck a pretty good chord with Ian Book.”

Eluding Kelly in his first seven seasons with the Irish was a consistent rushing attack. During his first five years, the high-water mark in the running game was 189.3 yards per game in 2012. None of the other four reached 160 yards per game.

With veterans Ronnie Stanley and Nick Martin and youngsters Nelson and McGlinchey up front, the 2015 squad put tougher its finest rushing attack, averaging 207.6 yards per game. Two years later, with Nelson and McGlinchey developing into first-round draft choices, the Irish averaged 269.5 yards rushing per game, a mark that hadn’t been reached since Lou Holtz – the college game’s greatest proponent of a strong rushing attack -- 21 years earlier.

Long doesn’t just believe in the running game; he insists upon it. In nine out of 13 games last season, the Irish ran it 39 times or more. So far through eight games this season – sans Nelson, McGlinchey and injured veteran Alex Bars – the Irish have cracked the 40-carry mark six times.

In the 21 games Long has been the offensive coordinator, Notre Dame has rushed for at least 240 yards 11 times (52.3 percent). In the previous 90 games under Kelly, the Irish reached the 240-yard rushing mark 12 times (13.3 percent). (Note: statistic provided by Pete Sampson of The Athletic.)

“I want to exert our will at any time and we’re not there yet,” said Kelly after the Irish ran it 43 times for 254 yards, four touchdowns and 5.9 yards per carry in a 44-22 victory over Navy Saturday night.

“We have to be more effective at running the ball when teams know we’re running the football. We did some better things. But this next month, we’re going to play teams in which we’re going to have to exert our will. We’re not there yet.”

Even with a change at quarterback and -- compared to last year -- a makeshift offensive line, Notre Dame remains among the top 50 nationally in scoring (34.0 ppg.), rushing (188.5 ypg.) and total offense (447.3 ypg.). Notre Dame’s 20 rushing touchdowns are tied for 22nd nationally.

Since Book took over at quarterback, Notre Dame is averaging 40.4 points per game, and that’s with a clunker (19 points against Pittsburgh) mixed in.

Kelly amended his “exert our will” comment from Saturday night. But he agrees that running the football will remain a staple of Notre Dame’s offensive attack.

“You’re not going to run the ball in the face of adversity; you’re going to run the ball to set up other things,” Kelly said. “There is a time and place for everything. We’re not going to abort the run game as an offense, but we’re not going to run the football into a situation where we feel we don’t have a chance to be successful.

“There are going to be times when we’re going to have to slug it out. We’re going to have to run the football -- even if we’re out-numbered at times -- to be able to set up the other things we want to do within the structure of the game.”

The structure of that offense under Long – even with the passing issues the Irish encountered at the end of ’17 and early in ’18 – is on solid ground.

“All the pieces are in place,” Kelly said. “The system is in place. We just need to be prepared each and every week to go out and do our job.”

The job of playing effective offense has gotten much easier under Chip Long.