This is a point I've been wanting to touch on for a while.
In college football the coaches are given so much control over the entire program that in a lot of cases, they carry by far the brunt of the weight in terms of a team winning or losing.
It's their job to
- develop HS/teenage talent into men/college football players at the highest level.
- develop assistant coaches into developers of talent
- scout talent nationally
- recruit/sell talent on coming to their program
- Make sure the 85 man roster is balanced/loaded full to the brim so that 2nd/3rd/4th teamers can step in during roster attrition with minimal drop off
- scout the opponent
- develop a scheme to optimize the talent on hand
- develop a gameplan that optimizes chances for winning on gameday
- etc. etc. etc.
Due to all of this control, the head coach is by far the one responsible for the big picture status of the program.
The fact of the matter is when you take a step back and look at Brian Kelly big picture, he simply doesn't have what it takes to do this job good enough to beat the other premiere programs in the country.
The loss to Michigan happened because ND was losing to Michigan from January-October leading up to that game. That falls squarely on the head coach. And this is a pattern that has taken place during Brian Kelly's entire tenure. Substitute Michigan with every other program loss on the schedule over the last 9-10 years.
ND is a B-level team because ND has a B-level man at the helm of the program.