Agree with nearly every post here. So many tangibles and intangibles at play last year. Bringing in Elko and Long and Balis will go a long ways towards righting what went wrong. The players holding themselves to a higher standard and each other to account seems the stuff of cliche, but you don't appreciate how critical this culture is until you don't have it, and everything suggests this year's team has it, and last year's team didn't.
As for the Academic side of the equation, I don't think any changes are necessary on admission requirements, as the minimum which athletes must meet are already well below the de facto competitive minimum for ND students at large. I do think ND would be well served to come up with a comprehensive plan to reduce the academic burden on all athletes during their primary playing season. Frankly, I marvel at how ND athletes, and football players in particular, juggle the demands of both.
Of the transfers out, I think playing time, or lack thereof, was the only consideration; and the one that hurts in terms of bench strength was Hoge as he was Mustipher's primary back up.
