All of the character issues regarding Kelly (Sullivan, Seeberg, Frozen 5) were known after last year's 10 win season and no one in the national media had the balls to say shit about it.
Now that he's 4-8 the character assassinations are flowing in. Basically saying all this is OK if you win (which is counter to the point they are trying to make).
We'll see the same articles about Saban (who had a player arrested with guns get no suspension this year), Meyer (who coached Aaron Hernandez and had tons of arrests at FL), and Harbaugh (a well-known hot-head) if the on-field results fall off.
Bottom line is 4-8 isn't good enough at ND, so Kelly should be fired. There are plenty of coaching failures to discuss why he ended up 4-8, but that would require these guys to actually watch the games so they know what those are. Easier to just google search past issues and compile it into one character assassination.