Is 2016 Salvageable?

With a season that has started began with promise that lead to a quarterback controversy that never was, a 1 – 3 record and a fired defensive coordinator can Irish fans have any hope for a “successful “ year?

For true Irish fans any season with three losses can’t be successful since they will not be in the hunt for the College Football Playoffs and a bid for a National Championship.  Maybe the real question should be can Notre Dame have a respectable season?

In theory with eight games to go the best the Irish could finish is 9-3, of course along those lines the worst they could finish is 1-11.  If your program is supposed to be a top program 9-3 doesn’t cut it, it defiantly will not put you in the discussion for the playoffs, let alone a National Championship.  However keeping things in perspective finishing 9-3 would probably be seen has a success based on how we started and 1-11 is not likely either.

For this discussion we are going to predict a 4 and 4 finish for the Irish.  To be fair they could finish 6-2 but they could also finish 2-6, so let’s split the difference.  That would put the Irish at 5-8, totally unacceptable.  Even if Kelly and crew could win 6 of their last 8 that would get them to 7-5 making them bowl eligible, probably the Gildan New Mexico Bowl against North Texas.

Keeping this as optimistic as possible let’s say we finish the regular season with 6 to 8 wins.  First if one of those wins can be the season finale against USC and second if we can have a convincing bowl win (although we know it will have to be a lower level bowl) maybe the season can be salvaged in some way. 

Brian Kelly, a look back.

I have been and still am a Kelly supporter.  However after the firings over the weekend of Notre dame defensive coordinator Brian VaGorder and LSU head football coach Les Miles I decided to think a bit more about the man leading the hopes and dreams of millions of loyal Irish fans, Brian Kelly.

Let’s take a look at his body of work in South Bend.

2010: 8 wins vs. 5 losses and a Sun Bowl 33-17 win over the Miami Hurricanes.  Following up on Charlies Weis’s 2009 campaign of 6-6 and no bowl appearance things were looking up.

2011: Another 8 -5 record but this time with an 18-14 loss to a Jimbo Fisher lead Florida State Team.  No improvement but a lot of talk about “wait until he gets his players in there”.

2012: An unbelievable and an unexpected 12-1 season earning the Irish a trip to the National Championship game.  Even though Kelly and his team got demolished 42-14 by a team that some thought could beat some NFL teams in Alabama, the slogan of wait till next year sounded promising for once.

2013: A hiccup year going 9-4 with 29-16 win over a 6-6 Rutgers team in the Pinstripe Bowl left fans feeling a bit flat.  Note that this was the same season that Florida State won the National Championship just two years after playing the same 8-4 record Seminoles.

2014: Back to 8-5 with what may be Kelly’s signature win in a 31-28 victory over a Les Miles coached LSU squad.  At least the bowl win left fans feeling satisfied with the season on some level.

2015: 10-3 sounds pretty good until you realize that the three losses were again to teams in the upper echelon of college football meaning we can beat those we are supposed to but not those we need to.  This season seem to capture the essence of Kelly teams; signature losses (almost beat Clemson and Stanford) and when it comes to Major Bowls we get clobbered in a 44-28 loss to USU and it wasn’t that close.

So what do we have?  One great season in 2012, one a little better than good season in 2015, one barley good season in 2013 and three fair at best seasons in 2010, 2011 & 2014.  Remember that any season not in the hunt or discussion of a National Championship should be considered subpar.

There is a lot to like about Kelly but…

The Day After - Duke

In a loss against Duke that drops Notre Dame to 1 - 3 it doesn't seem impossible to want to select any stars of the game but here we go.

Stars of the game:

Nyles Morgan

Quarterback DeShone Kizer; 22 for 37, 381 yards and 2 passing touchdowns along with 60 yards rushing on 11 carries and 1 rushing touchdown.  It seems that sometimes Kizer is the only one who can get things done.

Receiver Equanimeous St. Brown; 6 catches doe 116 yards and 1 touchdown.  St. Brown continues his development as the leading receiver on this offense.

Linebacker Nyles Morgan; 10 tackles (7 solos & 3 assisted) and one sack (Notre Dame's first of the season).



Since it was an Irish loss the has to be consequences.

On Blast:



Justin Yoon

Justin Yoon; 1 missed field goals, 6 kickoffs with only 1 touchback.  We expect, deserve and need better from Yoon.

Brian VanGorder; He seems to be Irish public enemy #1 these days.

Brian Kelly; When you're the head cheese you have to take responsibility.  What put me over the edge with Kelly yesterday were his post-game comments about DeShone Kizer.