Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly wins the 2012 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award

Coach Kelly helps Fighting Irish achieve perfect season

KERRY O’SHEA

On Thursday, Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly became the fourth Fighting Irish coach to win the Football Writers Association of America Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award.

USA Today reports on the award that Kelly is bringing back to Notre Dame for the first time since 2005.

Kelly’s perfect season this year helped him win the award, which was announced just before his team gets ready to face off with Alabama in the BCS championship game on January 7th.

Kelly is the fourth Notre Dame coach to win the honor. Coaches Parseghian won in 1964, Holtz in 1988 and Charlie Weis in 2005.

"It is with great pleasure the FWAA presents the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award to Brian Kelly," said 2012 FWAA President Lenn Robbins.

"Notre Dame, under Coach Kelly, has returned to national prominence in the college football ranks. This award recognizes that accomplishment for the 2012 season, a season that began with 124 teams vying for an elusive undefeated campaign. Notre Dame was the only bowl-eligible school to accomplish that impressive feat."

Coach Kelly was selected from a pool of eight finalists for the award: Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin, Ohio State's Urban Meyer, UCLA's Jim Mora, Penn State's Bill O'Brien, Georgia's Mark Richt, Clemson's Dabo Swinney, Louisville's Charlie Strong and Alabama's Nick Saban.

With the FWAA’s Eddie Robinson award, Kelly is adding to his other awards of American Football Coaches Association Division II Coach of the Year in 2002 and 2003 and the Big East Coach of the Year in 2007, 2008 and 2009.