I think we are seeing that one offseason was not enough for Kelly to train (develop) the current roster into the team he needs to execute his plan. What is Kelly’s plan? For 10+ years he has hung his hat on an aggressive offense that scores points quickly and a defense that makes enough stops (i.e. gives the ball back to the offense often enough) to win ballgames. I’m not sure if this plan will win national titles, but I believe that the current defense is good enough for a 10-win season. The problem is that the offense is not fully functional yet. There are simply not enough players on offense playing “fast” enough. There is no QB depth and we aren’t making the correct reads often enough and fast enough. The receivers are not exploding off the line of scrimmage, firing out of breaks, catching the ball, planting a foot, and tearing up the field. They are playing fast and hard, but look at the most effective spread offenses in the country. We are not there yet. The OL is not playing aggressive and consistent enough for this offense to be at full strength. There is only one RB playing aggressively and with enough consistency. At every offensive position (OL, RB, WR, TE, and QB) we need to be more decisive and more aggressive. I think that this all goes back to developing unconscious competence and we aren’t there yet. One offseason did not give us enough repetitions to play at “full speed” at every position. This is our problem and it’s why we have been beaten by good teams with less talent (UM, MSU, and Stanford). They all have multiple seasons under the same coach (extra repetitions = improved execution). I believe that we will get there by next season. If we don’t, ND football is in BIG trouble.

A win would be great but…..

ND 26- BU 23 in overtime

Please take your own advice and leave the “RR” and “tea partiers” comments in your mind and off the boards. Other than that, I agree with you. Lets see what an improved and confident 8-3 Irish (assuming a win over Utah) can do to the losing streak against the condoms…

PJ, you are correct about BK not being the type to blame, but to believe that he could turn this thing around in a couple of months is a bit too “rose colored glasses” for me. We do have the talent and we now have a solid college coach. Give him time to turn around the culture of the team and get this thing rolling in the right direction. As far as the 1-3 – vs – 3-1 with a few plays, well, many 1-3 teams can say something like that. BK’s Irish are not part of the Boob Weisingham era at this point. Time will tell if BK will need to be added to that mix, but let’s give it enough time to make a real evaluation and not just an emotionally charged rant like many Irish “faithful” are doing 4 games into BK’s tenure. Note: I’m not saying you are making such a rant. I’m just tired of the constant “hold me I’m Irish” coming from so many who want instant gratification. We had that with Willingham and Weis. I’ll take real results and a true change in organizational culture after some growing pains over instant gratification based on smoke and mirrors.