Former Notre Dame assistant coach, director of football operations and recruiting coordinator Bob Chmiel said the school hit a homerun with the hiring of Brian Kelly. (Daily Star photo/Provided)

By SCOTT NOVAK

Niles Daily Star

Bob Chmiel knows Notre Dame football.

After all, he was an assistant coach, director of football operations and recruiting coordinator for the Fighting Irish.

So when he talks about Notre Dame football people tend to listen.

With the season opener this afternoon at Notre Dame Stadium against Purdue, Chmiel offered his insights into the program and new head coach Brian Kelly.

He believes that the hiring of Kelly puts an end of the “Davie effect” at Notre Dame.

“I am talking about everything that has happened since he (Bob Davie) was hired,” Chmiel said in a telephone interview. “Tyrone Williamham was a really good guy and a genuine person, but it didn’t work out. Charlie Weis was a great NFL coach, but he had never been a head coach in college before.”

The hiring of Kelly harkens back to the time when Notre Dame coaches were proven college commodities.

They spent years around the college game and learned about what it takes to deal with the college athlete.

Kelly has the background.

He cut his chops as a Division 1 head coach at Central Michigan and then Cincinnati.

“Kelly’s pedigree is the same as Ara’s (Parseghian),” Chmiel said. “He has been successful at two different schools before coming to Notre Dame. When he was hired, if you could pick any coach in the country to come to Notre Dame, being a (Bob) Stoops or a (John) Gruden, you couldn’t have made a better pick. They hit a homerun when they hired Brian Kelly.”

Another thing he likes is how Kelly is handling himself and the football program.

Although he liked Weis, Chmiel said that things had to change and Kelly wasted no time making that happen.

“He said two things I really liked,” Chmiel noted. “One thing was he wanted to get rid of the entitlement, which there was some of during the Weis era. He also said it should be an honor to play at Notre Dame. I liked Charlie, but there were some things that I saw that bothered me.

“The gamesmanship before the games, players getting in the faces of coaches and other players. That bothered me. In my heart of hearts that isn’t Notre Dame,” he added.

Chmiel, who was also the recruiting coordinator at the University of Michigan, added that Notre Dame is unlike any other school in the country.

“If you want to be different, you have to act different,” he said. “The culture of Notre Dame is special. A young man has to accept the responsibility that reflects all the good things about this university.”

With the hiring of Kelly comes another rush of anticipation and enthusiasm for one of the top collegiate football programs in history.

Expectations are high for the Fighting Irish this season, which is nothing new at Notre Dame.

“All of us love Notre Dame and are yearning for the return of the greatness at Notre Dame,” he said. “With hope comes enthusiasm.”

Another thing that has bothered Chmiel over the past few years about the players coming to Notre Dame is where their priorities were.

“If you come to Notre Dame to get to the NFL you came for the wrong reason,” he said. “If I was Charlie Weis I would have put those NFL championship rings in the top drawer and I would have put on his Notre Dame graduation ring when he went to visit recruits. Show them that graduation ring because you can’t get that anywhere else.”

He also said that if you look at Notre Dame as a coaching job, you also came to the wrong place.

“It better be a way of life,” Chmiel said.

Heading into today’s season opener, the experts and fans have the Fighting Irish winning anywhere from seven to all of their games.

Chmiel is predicting an 8-4 season, which would be good for most teams, but “may not satisfy the fans that want an undefeated season,” he said.

Notre Dame takes on the Boilermakers at 3:30 p.m.

The game can be seen live on NBC (Channel 16).