Infinite loop under Kelly of "If only he had..."

Your post is correct, but in reality I bet very few ND fans expected anything positive to happen on that 4th and 9 play. Why? Because a Kelly coached team has never made that play.

Sadly, even some of the worst coaches in ND history have had big wins and "made that play". What separates Kelly from all other coaches in ND history is:

1) He isn't overtly horrific or great -- our history is nearly exclusively bi-polar

2) He is a 9-4 possibly now a 10-3 coach that cannot ever win a title

- That's a 7-2 coach in the era of Ara
- That's a 9-3 coach in the era of Holtz

ND faces the ultimate decision the same as UGA did with Richt, Ohio State did with Cooper, etc. Do you just settle for being above average but knowingly never elite, or do you fire that coach and hope to become elite?

3) He will go his entire career at ND without knowingly ever beating a single elite team. Zero.

His sole win over an "elite" team will be the MSU win and at the time of the game we thought we were playing an unranked / at best barely top 25 team. No real joy from that game -- because at the time we were just hoping to not lose yet again to some half assed team.

When the lights are bright and the world knows it is a giant moment -- Kelly has never won over an actual elite team. His greatest two moments at ND will be Stanford and Oklahoma in 2012 -- which in the Holtz era, for example, wouldn't be in the top 15 or maybe even top 20 wins.