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And the stadium had nothing to do with it.
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Brian Van Gorder was easily either the second worst, or worst of all, DC's we've ever had (Maybe Jon Tenuta could claim that title).
He had a roster stocked with NFL defensive talent, and utterly wasted it in 2015, especially Jaylon Smith's talent.
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Ugh. While the modernization of football facilities and the game-day experience are real, existing achievements, and hyping them and taking/assigning credit is fine -- though it alway irritates me when Crossroads is described as a $400 million "stadium renovation project" when only 20-30 percent went towards renovation of the stadium -- preemptively hyping the football turnaround I'll pass on. It's almost certain Kelly will have his first back-to-back 10+ win seasons. But if ND went 3-3 in its last 6 games [knock on wood, a worst-case scenario], it would be crisis mode again and a probable win against a beatable bowl game opponent getting Kelly to 10 wins would be a hollow achievement.
My greatest remaining concern, now that he has a QB he is apparently comfortable with, is Kelly's ability to manage the psyche of the ND football program. I appreciate that in his Tuesday press conference he was realistic about the uneven performance against VT rather than the self-satisfaction that he typically showed following "big" wins. I'd prefer if he expressed anger about it, but small steps I guess.