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I know that no one wants to hear this, but the 4 for 40 mentality answers all the questions. You can be a great football player in high school and even earn 4 star status. But if football is not your top priority, you and the team you play for are not going to successfully compete at a high level in college against 4 and 5 star athletes whose top priority is football. Yes, there is plenty of "talent" that Notre Dame can recruit. But what are the aspirations of these "talented players" when they come to Notre Dame, and what does the university reinforce with what they are promoting? I am neither condemning nor defending this approach. If this is what a young man chooses to do, how could one have anything but respect for that. But don't expect Notre Dame or any team for that matter to come out and consistently play at a high level every week or compete for national championships if much of your preparation for a football game each week also involves intense preparation for where you are going to be 40 years from now. This may have been what Kelly was implying and regardless of how I may feel about him as a person, in this case, his point is well taken.
How did we possibly accomplish that with your theory?
In those 10 win seasons, how many of those teams that Notre Dame beat had anywhere near the number of 4 star athletes that Notre Dame had? USC maybe? Clemson minus Trevor Lawrence? How many of the following teams did Notre Dame struggle with? Louisville, Vanderbilt, Ball St., Northwestern, Duke, Toledo..... How many more teams where the talent level was this wide do I need to mention? Did Notre look like they were well prepared to play any of these teams?? They got by on their talent. How prepared and motivated did they look in games against teams like Michigan and Miami where the talent level was equal? Then let's get to those CFP games where they were challenged talent wise? Alabama and Clemson dominated Notre Dame much more handily than Notre Dame did against any of the teams where they had more talent.