UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

2015 was a season where if Brian Van Gorder had simply exercised a shred of logic, we would have been in the playoffs, and maybe in the NCG. We could have beaten anyone in the nation, except Alabama.

2016 was a season where Brian Kelly choked in seven games, where we lost by one score, often times by special teams blunders, but mostly defensive ineptitude. Even the eighth loss, against USC, was winnable.

The Board of Trustees gave him a mulligan based on that 2015 season, and at least he elevated his game during the Kelly 2.0 era.



I honestly believed that Penn State would give Franklin a similar ultimatum after this year, seeing how he could have finished with at least a bowl-eligible team, but it appears that their Board of Trustees isn't quite as forgiving as ours.

I would even argue that James Franklin had better success than Brian Kelly did. At least he won some NY6 bowl games, in addition to last year's semifinal CFP appearance.


But, something truly stinks in Happy Valley, and it's only logical to surmise that the powers-that-be could only keep it covered up for so long, no matter how much tasty butter cream frosting they spread on a moldy cake.


McElroy and Cubelic were having a discussion over this on their radio show (highly recommend people listen to it, if possible), and said that there were rumblings about how Franklin was constantly being quite unpleasant towards his staff, his players, and just about everyone else, off camera. I'm more inclined to believe them, since they tend to be better informed than most of the other talk show folks.