re: Will Notre Dame ever have a dominant football program again?

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Brian Kelly is the best thing Notre Dame has going for it, right now.

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He's frustrating, because there are many times he's really brilliant (FSU and Michigan this year, Oklahoma and Miami 2012) and others when the team seems really ill-prepared and/or he makes a big coaching blunder (Navy 2010, Bama, Northwestern this year). I used to be a big time fan of Kelly, but he's starting to lose me with how the season ended, although there were a lot of injuries.

Next year's the big year for Kelly. It's his sixth year. It's hard to know exactly who will be leaving early for the NFL, but at this point for next year, ND loses two frequent starters from this year's team on offense (a lineman and TE) and only one frequent starter on defense (and he will be replaced by a guy who started as a freshman [on the national championship game team] and sophomore, but was suspended this season). If he can't have a really good season next year with that experience returning, it shows 2012 was a fluke and ND should move on.