Bagpipe Monday: So... What Do You Think Of Notre Dame Football Now?

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish finished the 2016 season with a 4-8 season. No, this is not another attempt at humor or even an attempt to forecast what happens next. That statement is merely another horrific reminder of where the Irish were, and how far they have to go.

@phillykelly

Instead of firing Brian Kelly, Jack Swarbrick continued to throw his support Kelly’s way. In doing so, it could have emboldened Kelly to stay the course and keep doing “business as usual,” which was an unfortunate quote from Swarbrick. Instead, it did the opposite. Brian Kelly dug deep and made a plethora of changes.

• New defensive coordinator, Mike Elko.
• New offensive coordinator, Chip Long.
• New special teams coordinator, Brian Polian.
• Giving Chip Long control of the offense.
• New strength and conditioning coordinator, Matt Balis.

Those are just the major changes, to go along with everything else.

We were able to see a lot of those changes start to come to fruition in the Blue-Gold game (at least in as much as we can in the offseason). We saw Brandon Wimbush, Daelin Hayes, Nick Watkins, Chris Finke, Dexter Williams, Drue Tranquill, Nick Coleman, and so many others out there on the field doing their job.

We saw the different formations, plays, philosophies, and tempos. We saw many different things- and yet... we still won’t even get a glimpse at the real future until the season comes along (and that may even be after a few games).

Given all of that, we still have our opinions. What are yours? What did you learn from Saturday’s glorified scrimmage? What do you hope? What do you fear? What do you predict? What do you think?

Your pipes are an ominous tune: