their ND job as a stepping stone to other similar jobs?
The program is much, much better today than when Kelly arrived. We've been to the NC and playoffs twice in 8 years, but the reality is ND is still less than the top tier, consistently elite schools when it comes to football.
This isn't a knock on Kelly. He's actually done a remarkable job regardless of a fair number of hiccups. It's more of a question of what needs to happen next to keep guys from coming from a Memphis to build on their name at ND in order to move to another coordinator job? Or, how do we keep them coming from Wake Forest to go to the likes of Texas A&M for the same position? The same could be said of Alford coming from Louisville to ND to OSU.
Granted, offer me twice the pay for the same role or the opportunity to work for Saban or Meyer over Kelly and I'd probably jump too. But, when you look at things from this angle, it also gives you an idea of where ND truly falls in the CFB world.