The reality is this IIO, Clemson has 1 National Championship in it's whole history. Yes, the atmosphere is great!
Yes, they do have a near by rich recruiting landscape. However, they compete with the Gators, FSU and basically the whole SEC for those top recruits.
My point is this, we would not even be talking about Clemson if Dabo was not there. ND can become a year in and year out playoff contender with the right head coach.
Kelly has had seven years to get this program to the elite level. He has failed and it is time to move on. Nothing will change next year. ND might win your 7.5 games. However, that is simply not good enough.
Fair point on the Clemson front. I equate them to an Oregon of sorts. A modern program, who a good coach took to the next level, by taking advantage of resources, location and essentially no self-imposed limitations.
With that said, I will stick to my opinion that while Notre Dame can compete for titles still (see 2012 as an example) the entire landscape has changed and made it harder for ND than it has ever been.
In 1988 Lou Holtz had a team full of what would be today high 4 and 5 star players. In 1988, many of the very best players still valued an ND degree and their parents pushed them towards an education, not banking on the hope that pro football would work out. Catholic schools in the Mid West and Northeast were packed full of quality players as economic depression hadn't kicked in and the population hadn't fled South. Instead of maybe 10 of the top 100 kids in the country going to high school in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, New York, etc, etc, that number was closer to 50 (half the top kids). On top of that, ND had won recently. These kids grew up with ND being an elite brand in their lives. Their parents had seen decades of it. Notre Dame was one of the the top 2-3 destination schools.
Fast forward to 2016. The best players are in the South or out West. The best teams, with the best players in Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc, etc, would get murdered by the best teams in Florida, Texas, California, Georgia and Lousiana... The SEC schools, the Texas powerhouses, etc, etc have access to a different kind of kid. In 2016 the best kids have teams of people around them, fast tracking them to money. They have,
agents, sponsorship opportunities, and all kinds of deals waiting for them... And they know it. 18 year old kids essentially are "brands" in waiting. They want to go to schools that cultivate that "business" mindset and create a semi-pro environment where school is not in the forefront, but a degree is a backup option in case football doesn't work out... Seriously, have you watched interviews with some of these kids? Do you think half of them have any business being in a University classroom, let alone one that would challenge them like Notre Dame? These kids don't care about school. They want to get paid. And they want to live like a Rockstar in to the process... And let's not pretend for a second that situations like what happened with the Ole Miss left tackle last year and people associated with Ole Miss, funneling money to the kid, don't happen all over.
I agree with you that ND can still get good players. There are still enough of them in the areas that produce "ND kids". Unfortunately, schools like Stanford, Northwestern and to a lesser degree, Michigan are trying to recruit the same dwindling pool of kids... Like Kelly proved when he went 12-0 and landed 7 top 150 kids, if you're the hot program "up North" you will get a good chunk of talent, but keep in mind that Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State were all down during that 2012 cycle and the Midwest had more talent in it that year than most. Not often Jaylon is an Indiana kid, rather than Florida or Texas kid... Ohio State is a different animal because it's a MidWestern school, in a talent rich state, with great tradition, but who runs its program like a southern football factory. Not a comparable situation to ND.
None of this is an excuse why ND lost to Syracuse, Duke, Navy or Tulsa... That's inexcusable... But to think there is a coach out there that will be willing to come to Notre Dame, and would within 2-3 years would elevate Notre Dame to the level of an Alabama, is not something I'd buy into. So many factors outside of coaching involved.
