This is the crux of the matter.
Kelly is not a good enough recruiter to take ND to the next level.
We can argue semantics on how to break down or define the amount of talent he accumulates but that is all just people talking past each other.
2012 Alabama
2015 Clemson
2015 OSU
2017 UGA
2018 Clemson
2019 UGA
It's all there out in broad daylight for the world to see.
ND is an exception when it comes to being elite, not the rule.
ND made the playoffs last year? That's cute, MSU made the playoffs once too
Any program can catch lightning in a bottle every once in awhile when the stars align. No one actually thought MSU belonged on that stage and no one expected them back anytime soon.
ND has won "ten games" the past three years in a row? That's cute.
Who did they play?
What elite teams did they beat?
What was their best win over that three year time span?
Did they dominate their lesser opponents consistently or did they find themselves in a lot of dogfights against fringe top 25 teams or even all of the MAC opponents?
ND went 10-2 this year. Wonder what their record would have been with TA&M schedule this year?
Would they have made the playoffs in 2018 if there wasn't a one year hiatus in the UGA series?
Would ND be able to trumpet to the skys Kelly's 10 win success if the Pete Carroll era was still going on at USC?
What if ND were a member of the ACC? Would they be making many playoffs with Clemson in the league?
Everyone knows the answers to these rhetorical questions.
Kelly is a good coach but he doesn't possess the inherent intelligence, creativity, vision, or energy level to take ND to the next level. If he could have, he would have.
People can blab on and on about academic restrictions, paying players, etc but at the end of the day certain human beings are capable of amazing feats and some human beings are just better at things than others.
Given what we have accomplished as a human race, I am confident that there exists a human being out in the universe with the inherent intelligence, vision, foresight, and energy that could manage the seemingly inconceivable and consistently recruit a collection of high school football players whom would be considered amongst the top five in the country on a year in and year out basis by leveraging the inherent advantages of the most historical collegiate football program in the nation, which also happens to offer a world class education, and has shown the willingness and ability to provide said individuals in the head coaching position nearly all requested concessions when it comes to deployments of capital.
I know it might appear daunting to sign one or two of these high school athletes labeled as a five star when its possible that perhaps three or four cannot be allowed into the institution due to academic failings. But you would hope again that there would be some human being available on the planet that might perhaps be able to work around this inconvenient obstacle and sign a few of the remaining 25 or so scholastic athletes.
And even were that to be a task too daunting for the human race, we should hold out hope for the future of civilization that there remain out there an individual who could curry favor with the remaining 225 or so scholar athletes included in the various internet periodicals as the most accomplished athletes in the graduating class.
You would hope that given the 225 available candidates there would remain a human on this planet that could attract around 6% of those fine athletes to play football for ND.
I know the above feats sound daunting and some may say impossible. I would challenge the doubters to rise up and grow faith! For we as a people have traversed vast oceans and explored the out planetary regions!
I am a believer in the human race and I stand firm in my convictions that recruiting top 5 classes to ND are in fact possible! That it is not too challenging of a task for the human race to take!
Regrettably, it is beyond the abilities of our current failed and disgraced leader. That is why we must severe ties and bid farewell.
For we as people entrusted by God with the abilities of reason and logic and rationality can deduce that while Kelly is good, he is simply not good enough. For all that has been accomplished by man since the dawn of time, we can stand confident that an individual (or perhaps even 10-15 individuals at any given time) exists out there in the stratosphere that will not get his ass handed to him every year in recruiting and when he leads his men out onto the collegiate football battlefield.
