Brian Kelly opened his postgame press conference after Notre Dame's loss to Georgia by saying, "Loss hurts."
So does the truth.
When Rodrigo Blakenship's field goal split the Notre Dame Stadium uprights to give the Bulldogs a 20-19 lead with 3:34 remaining in the fourth quarter, it all but guaranteed that another Irish game would be decided by one score. And as was the case in eight of their previous nine one-score games, they lost.
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Notre Dame lost seven one-score games last year en route to a 4-8 overall record and are now 1-9 in their last 10 one-score games, dating back to November 2015.
| Date | Opponent | Score | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 9, 2017 | vs. Georgia | 20-19 | L |
| Nov. 19, 2016 | vs. Virginia Tech | 34-31 | L |
| Nov. 5, 2016 | vs. Navy* | 28-27 | L |
| Oct. 29, 2016 | vs. Miami (FL) | 30-27 | W |
| Oct. 15, 2016 | vs. Stanford | 17-10 | L |
| Oct. 8, 2016 | at North Carolina State | 10-3 | L |
| Sept. 24, 2016 | vs. Duke | 38-35 | L |
| Sept. 17, 2016 | vs. Michigan State | 36-28 | L |
| Sept. 4, 2016 | at Texas | 50-47 (2 OT) | L |
| Nov. 28, 2015 | at Stanford | 38-36 | L |
*Game played at a neutral site (EverBank Field, Jacksonville, Fla.)
After stating the obvious that losses do, indeed, hurt, Brian Kelly was asked about their one-score failures by Indianapolis Star reporter Laken Litman.
"Obviously you made a ton of changes, changed the culture, everything," she began. "But obviously, you lost and at the very end, kind of like last year, seven of eight losses, how do you –"
She didn't — or couldn't — finish. Kelly interrupted her and the two had a testy exchange before he stormed out.
Brian Kelly wasn't happy at the end of his press conference when asked by @LakenLitman if tonight's loss was similar to those from 2016. pic.twitter.com/JzYWcv9Cmt
— Angelo Di Carlo (@angdicarlowndu) September 10, 2017
The last place in the world Brian Kelly wanted to be after another agonizing (potentially career-impacting) loss was in a brightly lit room being peppered with questions about his team's failures. But that's not why he lashed out at Litman. He lashed out at her because the truth hurts, and while Kelly made dramatic changes to his program over the offseason in an attempt avoid close-game failures like 2016, clearly something isn't working.
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