Counter arguments can be made to most of the points to keep

Jackson.

Cooley is not the only recruit to have bolted.
The coach is responsible for the type of play the team exhibits.
The coach is responsible for recruiting players who are going to succeed in the type of play needed to win.
Jackson is not the only coach competing with the NHL or Major Junior hockey.
Recruiting in hockey might be a different animal than football or basketball, but it is the same for the other 60 NCAA coaches. And for a hundred or more societal reasons, recruiting for hockey at Notre Dame is easier than it is for football or men's basketball.

3 of the last 4 years have been .500 campaigns, and there hasn't been near the playoff or regular season success of the first season in the Big Ten. The trajectory of the program is clearly moving in the wrong direction. (the trajectory that I am seeing is what worries me the most)

The one big things that can't be countered is Swarbrick and the powers that be cannot be trusted to do an effective search for a coach to a beer league team, let alone any athletic program as Notre Dame.

I've noted in more than one post recently I think Jackson has earned the right to correct this obvious downturn. I can't truly envision a scenario where dumping him today would be the most productive move. But he absolutely needs to change the kind of an offense he puts on the ice. He needs new voices to help him prepare special teams. And unless the athletic departement is why he can't fix this HE needs to fix this.

I do believe it's a huge fallacy that because hockey was at best an afterthought for 40 years at Notre Dame that entitles the coach be given any sort of a pass. The CFIA was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle and can it possibly be believe that in Jackson's 18th season here hockey is still an afterthought? The Brooklyn Dodgers (Bridegrooms, Superbas, Robins) were largely an afterthought for the first 50 years of their National League tenure.