Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly should be on the hot seat in 2018 for not living up to the high expectations set by past coaches.

Even though they haven’t won a national title in a long time, the University of Notre Dame football program has a history of winning. The program is sixth all-time in the FBS in wins and fourth in winning percentage. Even though Kelly has done a decent job in keeping the winning tradition by winning football games, he hasn’t won the most important prize — a national championship.

Some would say that’s nor fair given the current climate in college football. Notre Dame is no longer the powerhouse it once was due to the fact that every major college program can be seen on television. So, that can’t be a selling point to get top recruits there. Also, it’s hard to get the top recruits due to rigorous academic standards. So, they won’t be able to annually compete for national titles.

That said, the team should be able to compete for a national championship on occasion. If Brian Kelly were to complete this season as Notre Dame coach and enter the 2019 season as head coach, he will do so with a dubious distinction.

Kelly is the 31st coach in school history, and only four of the previous 30 coached at least ten seasons — Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz. If Kelly were to fail to win a national title in 2018, he’d likely to become the first Fighting Irish coach to enter his tenth season without a national title to his resume and a winning percentage under .700 (including his vacated wins). In order to achieve both, Kelly can’t lose more than one game.

Even though no one has won a national title at Notre Dame since January 2, 1989 — in the Fiesta Bowl — Kelly must be on the hot seat. They shouldn’t allow Kelly to make that sort of dubious history for this iconic football program. If he fails to win a national title and doesn’t even reach the .700 mark, he doesn’t deserve to be in charge of the program, and it’s time to go in a new direction before entering his tenth season.