In the short term, we'll have a team that fan finish in the top 10, and contend for a playoff spot if some breaks go our way. 10+ win seasons and a major bowl appearance should be the norm, at the very least. Brian Kelly and his current staff have done a nice job of coaching up the talent we have.

In the long term? We'll be stuck at the above level (good, maybe even excellent, but not great), unless recruiting continues to improve. We don't have that large presence of 5 star talent the likes of Clemson, Alabama, etc.

As it stands, we can contend with almost any team, and have a reasonably good chance of beating them. But to beat the teams the likes of Clemson and Alabama, we would need a lot of lucky breaks to go our way, and that's not likely going to happen on a regular basis, especially in the playoffs.

Brian Kelly has proven to be a top tier coach, but for him to become the best of the best the likes of Saban, Stoops, Meyer, etc., he's going to have to pull in even better talent on a regular basis.

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talent is problematic since the field is no longer level. ND has to hit on almost every top recruit and has little depth. Others can stockpile talent. Everything would have to fall into place for ND to win a national championship. But can’t lay the blame on Kelly. But I believe he knows that now.

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Huh? Charlie Weis totally sucked as a Head Coach, but in no ways did he leave the cupboard bare for Kelly when Kelly took over in 2010. Kelly hardly inherited a disaster.

Actually Weis is the one who inherited a disaster though a disaster that would stay in remission until the 2007 season when the lack of recruiting by "Radio" was just a little more than evident.

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Most of the best football talent has little interest in academics, and Notre Dame is now a first rate academic institution. That's actually a detriment to recruiting the top talent.

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is like hitting a hard four. Not likely but it does happen.