Pollys and Cassandras both. I think it is possible to say that Brey makes some seemingly strange recruiting, coaching, and rotational choices *and* that he often manages to get his team pointed in the right direction more often than not.

It's possible to be pissed about losing to BC and pissing away the VT game and to be happy about beating UNC, UK, and L'Vile.

I respect Brey, aside from Jackson's early hockey years, no coach has done more with less support in the last 25 years @ND. Even Brey would tell you the last few seasons are short of expectations. I might question some of the choices he makes, but I will support him and his teams. I will remain grateful to him when the time comes and he walks away. This is in stark contrast to the dead guy or Kelly.

I do find it odd to see people thumping their chests and crowing about posting only in bad times as often those chest thumpers are just the other side of the coin and are nowhere to be found when times are tough and the grumblers come out.

It is a shame some of the negativity has driven off some regulars who offered great commentary. I'll admit to being down on this season and being happy and surprised about how it is going. I am cautiously optimistic now. The ACC isn't what it was just a few years ago and is ripe for ND to take advantage of. The problem now is that the margin for error is a bit smaller. Gone are the days of having a winning ACC record being enough to make the NCAA.

My issue is the number of people who blow this place off after a win but will show up to repeat the same complaints over and over after a loss is significantly higher than posters who will come here to celebrate after a win but not post all that much after a loss.

At a basic level, the people participating here are supposed to be fans of the program. While it's certainly possible for fans to criticize things that go on with the program -- God knows I've done enough of that on the football side -- I have a hard time understanding why people in the first group would be fans of this program in the first place.

when things aren't so well the negativity can be grating no matter how a person feels about the program. It's been a rough few years and I can see how the negativity just was too much. It might be that a lot of NDNation folks are just miserable, complaining, internet meanies, and trolls.

I'm not miserable.

and I include myself in most of those labels.