It has been a tumultuous season to say the least at Notre Dame.

Not only were the Fighting Irish bad on the field, but also the off-field issues that began back in August seemed to plague Notre Dame throughout the entire 2016 campaign.

There were player arrests, a coach fired and an academic scandal that resulted in the vacation of wins from a pair of seasons.

The Fighting Irish won just four games this past season, the biggest coming against the University of Miami, which finished 8-4.

Since the season ended, fans and alumni have called for the firing of head coach Brian Kelly and athletic director Jack Swarbrick in both the school paper and this past weekend in the South Bend Tribune.

Arguably its best player, DeShone Kizer, announced he was leaving after two years to try his hand in the National Football League.

Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford is leaving to be the new head coach at Western Kentucky and yesterday Notre Dame fired special teams coordinator Scott Booker.

Late last night, ESPN announced that an Ohio court is reviving claims against Notre Dame in a concussion lawsuit.

That is a lot for one school to take on.

Throughout the season as the pressure mounted on Kelly and the program, Swarbrick has stood fast in his support for both.

Now that the season is over and the fan base, which in the case of Notre Dame pays most of the bills, has turned on Kelly and the program, he may have to sing a different tune.

Firing assistant coaches is not the answer.

It was not when the Irish relieved defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder mid-season, and it is not now with the firing of Booker.

There is no doubt in my mind that Kelly is a great football coach. But even great coaches sometimes need to move on for the betterment of the program and for themselves.

If Notre Dame was a state school and did not have to survive on donations from its alumni and fan base, I would be all for keeping Kelly around and letting him try to right the ship.

But it is not.

Notre Dame is a private Catholic school that counts on that money to not only keep the football program alive, but also the university itself.

For those who might not know this fact, a successful major college football program can virtually fund the entire athletic department and beyond.

Any dip in that success and schools can run into trouble funding what we now call “Olympic sports.”

Once a coach loses the fan base, there is no surviving.

All we need to do is look south to Texas where Charlie Strong, who I also feel is an excellent coach, was recently fired because the fans turned against him and the program.

Is there a better coach even available for Notre Dame? At this point, I do not see one.

And no, Western Michigan fans, P.J. Fleck is not ready to take over the reigns of the Fighting Irish, so take a deep breath.

Brian Kelly is not the biggest program Notre Dame has right now. But as the head coach of the Fighting Irish, he is responsible for the direction the program is heading and as of right now, that direction is south.

Notre Dame has to clean up more than Xs and Os if it wants to get back to being a college football powerhouse.

It needs to clean up the issues that have plagued this squad since late summer. It needs to find a way to keep the off-the-field issues from seeping into the product on the field.

It starts with a strong staff and talented players.

As of right now, I am not sure if they have either.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.