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Head Coach Brian Kelly Notre Dame

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Well, on the bright side for the Notre Dame football program, November is complete. The Irish entered the month with all of their season goals in front of them and sitting at No. 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

However, the Irish leave November as a battered and bruised football team following an embarrassing 49-14 defeat at the hands of USC.

The Notre Dame football program now reaches its most important point in the Brian Kelly era. The Irish can learn from a season of disappointment where lots of freshman and sophomores gained meaningful playing experience, or Notre Dame can continue to stumble along as a seven-to-nine-win program.

The Irish defense was decimated over the course of the second half of the season; heck, in one drive alone against the Trojans, the Irish lost two safeties and a defensive lineman from a unit that was already severely shorthanded. Give the defense credit for constantly battling, but this was an over-matched unit that is thankful this season is complete.

The Notre Dame defense reached historic lows to close out the season. The Irish allowed a total of 291 points over their final seven contests, an average of 41.5 points per game, and never held an opponent to less than 31 points. To add insult to the injuries, USC quarterback Cody Kessler tossed six touchdown passes on Saturday, the most against any Irish defense ever.

The onus for a lack of depth of defense is on Kelly and an inability to get players in the right spots lies with defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder. VanGorder brought an innovative, blitz-heavy scheme that had Irish fans and players excited during the first half of the season. For all the right buttons VanGorder pushed early in the season, he pushed all the wrong ones during the second-half collapse. The Irish must go back to the drawing board this offseason and figure out a way to get their best players on the field, regardless of how complex the scheme may be.

The more troubling aspect of the season was the deterioration of quarterback Everett Golson. Golson endured a roller-coaster season, from Heisman Trophy candidate to being benched in the second quarter of the season finale. Golson was maddening for fans and the coaching staff, compiling 3,632 yards of total offense on the season, but also committing 22 turnovers over the final nine games.

For all the praises Kelly has received as an offensive guru, he needs to find a stable running game and an offensive line capable of setting that tone. This offense feels like the Dallas Cowboys of a couple of seasons ago where everything was put on the shoulders of Tony Romo. Golson shouldered way too much of the offensive burden when the Irish have plenty of talent around him to help ease the load. Just like the Cowboys realized, the Irish need to find their five best linemen and dominate the line of scrimmage.

The entire Notre Dame football program needs to take a good, long look in the mirror to figure out where this program heads from here. Kelly is now 44-20 in five seasons at the helm of the Irish. There is a glimmer of promise with the potential to bring back 20-of-22 starters from this year’s team, but progress will need to be made for that to count for anything next year.

At least for the fans, this season is over. The real answers come in the next 12 months to see if this program learned anything from the way this season fell apart.

Patrick Leiva is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter and add him to your network on Google.

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