I disagreed with the clown show over at NDNation because their hatred for Kelly could be likened to the political environment. It was a litmus test. If you supported Kelly in any way, you were anathema to many. I just don't think there should be litmus tests for anything. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.
I saw times to attack Kelly...like in '10 when our OL road graders lining up like Run&Shoot OLs despite Kelly claiming he was gonna run it down people's throats. In '13-'14 when our inability to rely on a running game to reduce some responsibility from our QB to win a game. In '16 when I consistently was crushing Van Gorder on this board...especially to a former player who claimed the players were at fault for not getting his schemes.
I also saw times to support him. In general the program is in a dramatically better place today than it was on Dec 6th 2009. Our recruiting is in a good place, our consistency of winning.
ALL THAT SAID, I think everyone realized this was not the guy that was going to win it all. But we were so tired of being burned trying to chase the next big thing and ending up with Davie, Willingham, Weis. We also were tired of listening to people say - We need fire him and pay big $$ to get a guy! But when you asked who, the only names that came up were Saban, Meyer, Carroll, Swinney, Gruden, Harbaugh...guys that were NEVER coming to ND.