As you suggest, perhaps Kelly is sticking his nose in too much. What decisions does he have behind the scenes? Surely Long wouldn't have hired Jeff Quinn out of thin air if it was his choice. Saban has gone after him twice, that has some value right there.
ND has several plays that could have been "system" TD's, meaning if you stick anyone with D-1 skill out there with the ball in his hands, he is scoring. Our QB couldn't get it to them. Is that Long fault? Some degree of the blame is on him for sure. How much is the hard part.
It's frustrating stuff because offense was always sort of the side of the ball us ND fans thought we shouldn't have issues competing on. Even after the Holtz years we could recruit OL, QB, RB, and WR. Defense was the scary part. What would you know, back to back years of really good defense and the offense can't get going.
Can ND pair this type of defense up with a 2015 type of offense. I hope.