I love ND but we don't have a lot of self awareness sometimes. C??? Come on.
Program building - the program is in the best shape that it's been in 20 years. Maybe it's not where you want it to be, but Kelly has pushed and done what many before him couldn't. Get the school to invest a little money and change their ways... training table, strength and conditioning, significant investment in facilities, turf, improvements to the stadium and game day atmosphere. It's a school that is hesitant to change or invest money without a fight. I give him credit for that.
Recruiting - He has steadily improved the recruiting in his time at ND. Again, many of his teams have had the most depth and talent that we've had in 20 years. There are a ton of top tier kids that he can't even consider at ND because of academic issues and other red flags. He tried to take some shots on kids with those issues and it came back to bite him in the ass. So he has to shop down a different aisle, as he puts it. I'll give you the RB position and the QB's, for various reasons, haven't lived up their their recruiting hype.
Leadership - I'll give you a bit here as I think this has been his issue. He blamed others early in his time here. He's gotten better at taking responsibility when things don't go well. Not his strongest suit.
Creativity and in game adjustments - I think he looked in the mirror and was willing to be more creative with his approach to this team after the 4-8 debacle. Reach outside his inner circile. He's been stubborn on the offensive side with control, etc. The Defensive has consistently made progress throughout his tenure, with the exception of the end of the BVG run. As far as in game adjustments, he's done reasonably well at post halftime adjustments. I think they're improving on adjustments in real time with this current staff (see defense vs. Louisville)
I'm not trying to be a BK apologist. Lord knows he's made some mistakes during his tenure and I'm sure he'd love to go back and do some things different. But we have to face reality, this isn't an easy job and it's not a job that "top tier" coaches would like to take on. Why would they when they can go somewhere else and recruit whoever they want, in a recruiting hotbed and the school will spare no expense?
I just think people won't appreciate BK until he's gone. You can't look at what ND should be based on the last 100 years. The last 20 is the reality of today's college football.
He's at least a B+ coach for us.