Adjusting expectations: What can Notre Dame fans hope for now?
By Greg Hadley
Worst case scenario
Duke, originally considered an outside contender for the Coastal Division title, regains its mojo following a shaky start to the season. The Blue Devils do what any other team with Power 5 talent could do and steamroll Notre Dame’s rush defense, mixing in a few long passes for good measure. The offense does its whole comeback thing, and maybe they pull it off, maybe they don’t. But things don’t look good.
No Notre Dame team is going to lose to Syracuse. It just ain’t happening. DeShone Kizer and Josh Adams will have historic games, leading everyone to think the Irish are back on the right track. But they’re not. BVG has not figured out how to make his young defense work, and the unit has lost faith in its leader.
That leads to disaster at North Carolina State, where ND’s road struggles return and the Wolfpack deploy a balanced passing attack to shred the Irish secondary. Stumbling from that defeat, Notre Dame returns to campus only to be flattened by Christian McCaffery, who puts himself in the driver’s seat for the Heisman. Kelly bows to the inevitable and fires VanGorder, but it’s made to look as though he resigned.
That doesn’t help though. Miami, an offensive juggernaut, comes into town and Brad Kayaa has a field day picking apart the Irish secondary. Suddenly Kelly is the one who’s on the hot seat. It doesn’t help that two of the most high-powered run games in the nation follow Miami. ND scrapes one service academy win against Navy, but Army’s ground attack is too much and allows the Black Knights to dominate time of possession and snag its first win against the Irish in nearly 60 years.
Virginia Tech has risen under the guidance of first-year coach Justin Fuente, who leads the Hokies to a win to spoil Senior Day. USC may still be a joke, but at this point Notre Dame isn’t going to make a bowl game and Kizer is only playing to boost his draft stock. Maybe the Irish win, maybe they don’t, but it doesn’t matter. It’s the worst season of Brian Kelly’s tenure.