It's not apples to apples but it's telling:

Corrigan lost a few members of his staff and hired Chris Wojcik, head coach at Harvard for 9 years.

Jackson has Paul Pooley on his staff. Pooley coached Providence for 11 seasons and led them to 2 tourneys.

Niele Ive's first move was to to hire Coquese Washington who was head coach at Penn State for 12 years. Four tourney appearances and three Big Ten titles.

All were around .500-level coaches but that knowledge is invaluable to a head coach. You need a confidante with experience who can steer you in the right direction.

Matt Luke, Joe Moorhead, and Jeff Tedford were all available. I have no idea if they were good fits for ND. But ND should be a landing spot for good O or D-minds with high-level experience.

Who knows how Weis might have fared if Cutcliffe's health had not turned.

I think the offensive coaches are due some credit that they found a way to win with him at QB. Their inability to identify D1 QB talent for years on end is an entirely different sad topic.

It appears to me that the staff is infuriatingly average at recruiting, but coaching and strength and conditioning once the kids are on campus has been above average.

Clark Lea might be one of the best coordinators at in-game adjustments that we've ever had. I'm willing to bet he's already privately been named 'Head Coach in Waiting.' That would piss me off, not because Clark Lea can't be a wildly successful Head Coach, but because it would be so typical of our unprepared, lazy-ass, visionless administration (see: Rees, Tommy).

yeah, he showed the Michigan offensive staff who was boss...in the rain when everyone knew they were running the ball.

Not that hard to make in game adjustments against Vanderbilt, Miami (OH), or Central Michigan.

that the problem in the Michigan game was defense? That was an offensive shit show. Passing X times (AGAIN) in the rain, especially with low percentage out routes. 3 and out galore. Lack of a creative running game. Barf.

There's only so many times any defense can trot out after an offense diddles themselves over and over again.

Lucy has pulled the football away enough times during BK’s reign for me to put a game over socializing as long as he’s here.

first, I will never disagree with your sentiment around the offense sucking arse...it did that night. Yes, I believe Kelly and the OC could have had a better gameplan to help/hide the D's issues.

But, (see poster below) it wasn't a great defensive gameplan. The special teams were abysmal, and the offense was bad, but the D couldn't get off the field because they couldn't stop the Michigan running game (which was pretty imaginative). Michigan was on the ropes and, frankly, really needed that win. Excuse me, Harbaugh really needed that game. So many teams took Michigan to the shed, but their running game shoved the ball down our throats all game long.

Gosh, I promise I'm not trying to be negative as I want ND to be great. This all falls on Kelly and all his deficiencies...which are many.

Are you suggesting ND's defense was tired at the start of the game?

4 possessions, 17 points = 4.25 points per drive

Michigan had 10 more possessions and scored 31 more points = 3.1 points per drive. (actually 11 possessions, but it's reasonable to exclude the kneel-downs at end of half)

ND's defense played worse at the start of the game.

as thinking about that game again hurts my head.

but here's a quick look at ALL of ND's first half drives:

1. 9 plays, 34 yards, 3:57
2. 6 plays, 11 yards, 3:11
3. 3 plays, 2 yards, 54 seconds
4. 3 plays, 4 yards, 1:54
5. 4 plays, 6 yards, 1:57
6. 3 plays, 5 yards, 45 seconds

Sure, ND could have played better defense.

But at the end of the day ND had barely over 50 yards of offence in the first half and all of 10 minutes of possession. And with all that shit, the defense gave up 17 points. 17 points isn't good, but it's not terrible all things considered. It's also easy to imagine a world where that 17 would have been a 10, in which case it would be pretty good. But in no world was the offence remotely competent.

Both the defense and the offense sucked that night overall, but it was the offense that wagged the suck dog.

And one of those weeks was fall break with no classes.

How we could be "tired" or unmotivated means only that Brian Kelly should have been terminated as coach between that game and December 1.

Michigan and Harbaugh were teetering and not only did we not step on their neck, we lost 45-14 and showed so little fight...we let him off the hook. He would have had a helluva tough time recovering from a ND loss.

1st 4 possessions - 190, for an average of 47.5
(17-0 Michigan, game over.)

last 10 possessions - 248, for an average of 24.8

it was a complete loss...I'll agree with poster that Offense was pathetic that night.

I'll stand by the comment that I didn't see a ton of adjustments on the D that night, but he/she would be correct in saying it was a complete loss

For one, as you brush over - Wimbush was this staff's chosen recruit. We were told he, of all the Kelly duds, was "the one" - not quite as midgety as Golson, Stronger arm than Zaire, faster than Kizer.

For two, you can't discount the impact of three years of poor position coaching/development on his eventual outcome. Had he gone to a different program and been developed properly, rather than turned into the usual post-Kelly basket case QB, the outcome may have been entirely different.

A new staff may not see the value in spending time repairing this for an upperclassman project. They could reasonably favor a younger player with a smaller but who is accurate that they can spend time getting more in-depth with offensive strategy.

Spsure to be a wildly successful head coach. Like a bullet to the top of the ranks. It’s a wonder he is stuck languishing on this staff with the other sure fire next big things.

I think he's a good X's and O's guy, for the most part, I don't fault him for the Clemson game, I thought the defense actually held up pretty good until the offense kept giving them zero breaks whatsoever, and the Love injury gave Lawrence some huge opportunities.

Honestly ND's defense arguably held up a lot better than Alabama's, it was ND's offense that was the huge, huge problem IMO.

But Lea should be bringing in better guys on defense at this point, and you are right that the Michigan game was pretty worrisome.

I think Mike Elston is actually probably one of the best coaches on the staff. The jury is still out on Lance Taylor at this point, next year will say a lot about him I think. McNulty and Mickens were kind of embarrassingly low hanging fruit for how long it took to hire them, I really hope they actually pan out.

I think that Polian, Del Alexander and Quinn are the rather obvious dead weight on this staff. Maybe I'm being harsh on Del Alexander, I don't think anyone had Claypool or Boykins pegged as 1st-2nd round draft picks when they committed. Still, you'd think it wouldn't be this hard to bring in blue chip WR's to Kelly's pass-happy offenses.

is silly. You're obtuse if you think the defensive gameplan was the problem with that game, particularly if you watched both of Clemson's playoff games that year.

Defensive Coordinator: Brian VanGorder

The rest of his staff may be full of budding Paul Browns, but that's all I really need to know.

I think Rees could end up being good, but I think he made a poor long-term decision in accepting a too-good-to-refuse offer at a familiar place and comfortable setting.

Mickens seems intriguing but is definitely a low-hanging fruit hire due to his past with Kelly. Would have liked if he had proven his worth at a Power 5 school first. But we'll find out soon enough.

It's embarrassing that Quinn and Polian are on the staff (and Polian's recruiting isn't good enough to justify it. The big feather in his cap is one prospect who committed more than a decade ago under a different head coach. It's not 2009 anymore...)

Idaho, Indiana State, Bowling Green, Cincinnati. No NFL career.

Apparently, he is now chasing one of the Liberty cornerbacks who plans to transfer and some unranked CB out of California.

Landed 1 decent CB and 1 low-rated CB since his hire.

gargle whale's balls. The poor guy. I wish he had better instincts. He cannot succeed where he is. He will need to unlearn everything he knows.

I would be interested in learning more (honestly). I haven't heard much about our S/C since the last guy (who was not impressive, IMO). Are our athletes in better condition than our opponents? Do we have measurables since he arrived (fewer injuries, types of injuries, etc.)?

I don't know if that can be directly correlated to the coach or if it is part luck and part coaching or...

Kelly asked for a change to how we monitor things and given we are doing that, the SC coach itself isn't really the difference maker. It's possible that the monitoring itself is not something any coach could do equally well -- if that is indeed a key factor in the hypothesis that we have fewer season ending injuries (ACL, etc).

Of course, the assumption is that the next head coach will be an excellent one. And, thus, by definition, would have excellent S&C, DC, and OC coaches, and high-performing staff in terms of recruiting, planning, teaching.

But maybe Balis is the "best S&C coach since Holtz."

If you read only the South Bend Tribune and ND fan sites you'd think Kelly had the Dream Team working for him, masterminds in their industry.

give it one more season and he’s gone.

You and others vastly overstate his prowess. Then again, you probably follow him on Twitter.

coach at ND. I doubt the pay is substantially different at the other power 5 schools and ND has really narrowed the gap on things that matter to a SC coach like training tables, facilities, high tech systems, etc.

He might want better weather -- he came to ND from the Tampa area.

Then I'd say Lea/Balis would be next-to-impossible to replace.

I bet you a large sum of money that if he was at a place that could run the ball, he'd have a top 10 defense every year.

He's a garden variety pretty good DC. He's not been identified by people who make these decisions to be a wunderkind who needs to be a HC. He has had a couple of pretty poor ass chowings as DC in big games against elite teams. Clemson and Michigan come to mind.

I recall several games (at USC among others) where an offense was having their way with us and, although it was obvious that we needed to adjust, we waited until halftime before really changing our play.

Good coach, not great.

But I still posit that if we could run the ball effectively, and not have the defense out on the field all game they wouldn't have looked so shitty.

The rest of the staff blows goats though. I feel bad for Rees.

Davie
Minter
Fazio
Darnell
Lea

I would take Lea over any of these guys under Lou.

Only Alvarez was better.

Tenure at Pitt.

He is representative of ND football. Our version of good.

That doesn't really advance any argument. Georgia put up 23. Kentucky, A&M, Auburn, LSU held them to less. Florida held them to 24. Missouri to 27. Vanderbilt to 30. Baylor to 26.

ND's performance was not remarkable. But, no, it was not a Michigan embarrassment.

taken several different sets of starters -- losing many if not all the top players from the previous season -- and plugs new ones in and the defense produces the same or slightly better results year over year (and top 40 level, so not repeating the same crap results).

I don't think you need gurus to win titles. What you need are competent coaches that know how to craft a system and teach it to players rapidly in a way they can consistently execute. That's what Lea is doing. The LB crew this past season is a good example -- all new, feared to be a back breaker for us, actual results were above average and arguably as good as the previous season.

Contrast that to our offense as a whole -- where we have a system that aside from being crap even if implemented well (since by design we have no intention of running well -- and when we absolutely need to) has proven to be one our players can't seem to master. That's especially true for the QBs.

Quinn is likely by several orders of magnitude the worst coach we have. He compounds it by also trending toward being a poor recruiter.

It is effective against bad defenses and that pads the statistics.

It is the system that is defective by design and by its very essence just terrible. Poor Rees is steeped in it.

we couldn't stop a dive play...in the rain when we knew they'd run...we made Patterson look like a Heisman candidate that night.

I don't recall seeing a single adjustment that worked all night long

and "blows goats."

moniker.

But top to bottom, we might just have the very worst staff of any major conference team. Just woeful.

under a different HC? We saw that fairly consistently with Davie and Weis coaches. Hand them to Urban and Florida and suddenly those that sucked at ND don't suck there.

Part of what makes most of our coaches suck under Kelly -- is Kelly. On the offensive side of the ball he only allows half an offense to be practiced. We could have God as our RB coach and probably still would only see marginal improvement to our running game.

in his brain.

other system while at ND and also being capable of successfully implementing it. Those are of course both highly likely to happen for a first time OC.

It clearly was a very high percentage move. Thank God we have a genius HC that was able to see this move when the rest of us were incapable of recognizing it. Urban in effect did exactly that -- so we can look forward to the fact it has actually happened before.