The Notre Dame Hangover: Same Song

It seems like I’ve took an inordinate amount of time to finish up this last loss by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. It should have been a lot easier. It’s not like this exact same game hasn’t been played a handful of times this year. So, losing to the Virginia Tech Hokies 34-31, actually feels about right.

How horrible of a statement. How cruel a thought. How true a reality it is for Notre Dame football.

It is truly a horrible and cruel reality to witness this team repeating the same mistakes over and over again during the course of the season. This season’s mistakes are so well sewn into the fabric of what they are this season, that even when they got up by 17 points, a vast majority of Notre Dame fans knew it wouldn’t last.

Miami, Stanford, Duke, etc... Just about every game has been played the same way, and all of the losses certainly have felt that way. This week may be a lot different as the Irish go on the road to close out the season inside the LA Coliseum against the USC Tojans. Southern Cal is legit, and they have the weapons on both sides of the ball to punish Notre Dame severely. Think, 2014, but without a long list of injuries to blame it on.

What this team needs is a wholesale change. If Jack Swarbrick is unwilling to fire Brian Kelly at the end of the season, then he needs to at least demand more changes to the staff than just replacing the defensive coordinator. As far as I’m concerned, not one coach for Notre Dame football has to be back next year (I’m including a certain quarterback coach here as well).

The entire team looks stale and robotic outside of the fake emotion dancing on the sideline. Something fresh has to replace the moldy shit that has took over the refrigerator that is South Bend.

Sometime there just needs to be a shake up to move forward. What the hell is everyone so worried about? Sometimes a little upheaval does less damage than you think:

Look, could Dr. Dre ever have made the ultimate classic album in “The Chronic” if N.W.A. never broke up? What about Ice Cube? Would Cube be the crossover success as an actor and a musician if N.W.A. was still making albums? I’m going to say “no” on both counts and side with history here.

This team hasn’t gotten any better since the Texas game. How much of that is squarely on Brian Kelly’s shoulders and how much of that is this staff? Sure, Kelly is ultimately responsible for all of them, but if he is indeed given another year, at least half of these guys have to go.

If not, we may be singing the same song again next year, while watching the Irish slip further back into the state in which it was in before Kelly arrived.