Bagpipe Monday: What Kind Of Season Does Notre Dame Football Need To Have For Penance?

It has been around ten days since the Notre Dame Fighting Irish started spring football. With in that time, we have seen very little of anything. One practice was available to the media and we got a follow up to the Valentine’s Day lift video with a St. Patrick’s Day video.

For all of the changes the Irish have made this offseason (okay, for all of the changes that Brian Kelly has made) we are still very much in the dark about how this will all work. Sure, we can piece it together so it looks like Notre Dame will be on their way to the playoffs, and we can also say that it’s all a bunch of hype and this team will still be mediocre in 2017.

@phillykelly

OH WHAT BITTER UNCERTAINTY IS THIS?

For everything that happened in 2016; 4-8, losing to the Navy Midshipmen, losing to the Duke Blue Devils, Brian Van Gorder, the billboard, the ads, Jack Swarbrick’s defiance, forfeiting wins, the (further) polarization of the fanbase, and anything else we can think of... there seems to be an awful lot of hope going around about 2017 and beyond.

Hope is a funny thing. It exists to either be realized, or to be crushed. It’s a brutal state and a brutal business. It’s fair to say that Notre Dame, Brian Kelly, Jack Swarbrick, and maybe even the Leprechaun himself have a large, loud, and lively group of enemies within its own house.

What will change things? What kind of season will change the minds of those that are so certain that the program is in peril? Is 10 wins enough? Is a playoff berth enough?

Is it more complicated than the wins or the losses? Is it a style? Is it dominance? Is it going back to wearing Champion uniforms and running the triple option? What oh what can Notre Dame football do to receive forgiveness from its most skeptical alums and fans?