It is a useless stat when trying to forecast what kind of a rushing offense ND will have in 2017. In fact, it proves nothing nevertheless your point.,
The reason this team sucked last year was Kelly and his coaching staff. Everything from play calling to Van Gorder's defense was horrible. The talent that ND had last year was wasted.
I can't blame last year's fiasco on the players..
Getting back to the rushing game. You want to throw out a stat that we were 80th and shout "we sucked last year". That's fine. But if you drill down and try to make a reasonable determination on how the running game will be in 2017, you need to look at other stats as well as returning personnel. The picture is not as bleak as you make it out to be.