After 2016, Brian Kelly stole some of Willy Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drink and started a meteoric rise which culminated with a loss last night in the College Football Playoff semi-finals. Notre Dame has hit their peak under Brian Kelly. A peak which, as in 2012, seems to indicate that the best the Notre Dame Fighting Irish can do is getting invited to the dance and the painful truth is we will never be the belle of the ball. Any number of factors may be the root cause of this, but the outcome still remains... Notre Dame with Brian Kelly are really really really really good, but not great. Sure, the list of great/elite combinations of both program and coach is ridiculously small, but if Notre Dame isn’t scratching and clawing to get in that select group then what are we really doing here.

As such, ND Fan Radio is doing the honorable thing and tendering our letter of resignation to One Foot Down and to all of you, our loyal and cherished listeners. Our show has always strived to be a look inside the frenetic mind of a Notre Dame fan, and we believe we have delivered that. At the same time, our show has always been predicated on reactions. In other words, we don’t do previews per se, but rather respond to the most recent game/news. It seems clear that the path for Notre Dame moving forward with Brian Kelly will be really good football, probably averaging 10 wins under BK 2.0, which is fine but still short of elite and championship level. That path means that ND Fan Radio has also reached it’s ceiling.

Thank you all for your support over the years. We will do one final “career recap” show in the next couple weeks and encourage everybody to add your favorite moments on twitter via the hashtag #NDFRfinal.