Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 NOV. 21, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED " B rian Kelly outcoached again. It's getting old." "Another pathetic play-calling performance … we were also out-coached in every department again today …" "Jim Harbaugh has Michigan play- ing at a very high level in two years. Brian Kelly has had seven!!!!!! Fire Kelly PLEASE!!!!!" Above is a small sampling of some disgruntled message board posts that clogged up the World Wide Web a couple of Saturdays ago immediately after Notre Dame suffered another upset loss, 28‑27 to Navy. To say that the natives are growing restless with the Notre Dame football program would be about as grand an understatement as saying that Irish head coach Brian Kelly and the rest of his staff have fallen short of expec‑ tations this year. So as the difficult 2016 regular sea‑ son mercifully winds down with a first‑ever game against Virginia Tech Nov. 19, followed by the 71st consecu‑ tive meeting with USC during Thanks‑ giving weekend, expect the heat un‑ der Kelly's seat to simmer through the holiday season and likely well beyond. For obvious reasons, but un‑ founded grounds, comparisons are being made between this year and the 2007 season when the Irish went only 3‑9 under head coach Charlie Weis. The crummy records are obviously comparable, but that 2007 team was void of much talent after back‑to‑ back recruiting hiccups in 2004 and 2005 from previous head coach Ty‑ rone Willingham that were mani‑ fested on the Irish roster. Meanwhile, Kelly's current team is loaded with future NFL players that he stockpiled during an uninterrupted run of top‑15 recruiting classes. Expect at least six Irish players from this year's team to be playing in the NFL next season, which is presum‑ ably more than Duke, North Carolina State and Navy — three teams that beat Notre Dame — have combined. The point is, Notre Dame is a good football team that Kelly has not coached very well this year. Let us count a few of the ways: • Erratically rotating between quarterbacks DeShone Kizer and Ma‑ lik Zaire in the Texas game. • Trusting his defense to get a fourth‑quarter stop against Michigan State after the Spartans reeled off 36 unanswered points during the game. • Calling at least 26 pass plays — 12 on first down — in tropical storm conditions at North Carolina State. • Yanking Kizer in favor of Zaire in the Stanford game. • Settling for a fourth‑quarter field goal and again trusting his defense to get a stop against a Navy team that controlled the ball and clock the entire game. • And, one week after recording six tackles for loss and a sack against Miami, senior defensive lineman Jarron Jones played about a dozen snaps against the Midshipmen. Adding insult to Kelly's coaching misery, this is one of the weakest schedules Notre Dame has played in years, perhaps even decades. Its nine Power Five opponents were winning at barely a 33‑percent clip in their conference games. Look, it's becoming increasingly and painfully obvious that Kelly's Irish are far away from the stratosphere that Alabama, Ohio State and a handful of other top programs operate in. And that's okay because what ac‑ tually serves that greater good of Notre Dame more than title talk and unfair comparisons to the truly elite is that Kelly and Co. coach these kids up in football and in life, and put an entertaining and competitive prod‑ uct on the field — one that makes the fan base and alumni proud and holds the players to the high standards of the university. Unfortunately, with only three wins in the last 11 games, it spoils any debate as to whether Kelly is failing the program in each of these areas this season. To have more than 20 players ar‑ rested or suspended during his six‑ plus seasons here as a head coach — seven this year — suggests that Kelly doesn't fully understand or isn't properly delivering the message of what Notre Dame stands for. His players seem to be digressing every week on the field (see Kizer), and they continue to look dazed and confused on even the simplest of assignments. And there is nothing entertaining about a weekly lesson in poor tackling, sloppy fundamentals and sketchy play calling on a team that hasn't won two consecutive games in a calendar year. "How in the heck is ND going to beat an Alabama or Ohio State for the national championship if they can't beat Navy or any of the other losses on their schedule?" That's probably a question better suited for the Irish coaches than it is an Internet message board. ✦ Temperature Rising As Bad Losses Mount UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com After Notre Dame's 28-27 loss to Navy Nov. 5, the Irish were 3-8 in their last 11 games dating back to the end of the 2015 season. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA