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Link: https://notredame.rivals.com/news/the-sudden-steep-fall-at-notre-dame
In a way the article highlights the underlying "cause" explaining how the 2016 ended.
-One of biggest concern going in was a roster problem similar to 1956 = for a variety of reasons we basically did not have the battle hardened experience of 4 or 5 years normally present in a senior class of about 20: https://notredame.rivals.com/news/numbers-crunching-for-notre-dame-s-fifth-year-seniors-and-2017-roster.
A massive loss of proven playmakers made the potential problem much worse - actually was as we could have won almost every game with a 5 star play in the right spot. Also the roster reflects my memory of many games with stretches of dominance but no consistency to play at that level for a whole game by all three units = exactly what one would expect of inexperienced players.
-As noted 1999 and 2016 look a lot alike. Expected the D to have issues but get better as the season went on assuming no major personnel losses (wrong as the injuries and off the field problem again came). As a result expected a lot of shootout games but hoped the other two units could dominate enough for us to win these games and set up 2017, which on paper, would be the first time in the Kelly era when we had a roster that looked normal - at least 20 per class.
Lou likes history and may also do an article on massive scheme or personnel changes that we made during a few seasons. The only one I remember that seemed unbelievable at the time but actual worked out very well was 78. Not only did we go with a third stinger QB (Montana) for most of the season but we also changed from a veer concept to a power I but didn't fire the offensive coordinator even it was painfully obvious from game one that the veer was the wrong choice given our personnel.
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