Three years ago, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish found themselves questioning everything about their program.
A fortnight after wrapping up an 11–1 regular season, Brian Kelly, the longtime architect who had rebuilt the program into a consistent winner, shockingly fled to take the same position with the LSU Tigers. Just a few days earlier, their archrival USC Trojans had just poached Lincoln Riley in an equally seismic move that was supposed to alter the college football landscape.
