Here we go again.
Another Notre Dame football season has ended with fans grumbling in confusion and frustration, just as it has for the past two years.
Last year, the Irish finished 10-3 on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff following two regular season losses by a combined four points to Clemson (ranked #1 at the time) and Stanford, who finished third in the AP end-of-season rankings.
In this year’s annual Scholastic Football Review, we look back at one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory. The anger of the Irish faithful has been amplified as the team recorded eight losses, the total number of losses suffered in the past two heartbreaking years combined.
With a year like we just had, it is tempting to just forget the whole thing, but those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So we at Scholastic took out our notebooks and dove in to HIST 1003: 2016, THE LOST SEASON.
It certainly was not pretty. We wrote recaps for twice as many losses as wins. For only the eighth time in the program’s 110 year history, the Irish recorded less than five wins.
We analyzed what exactly went wrong and entertained the growing Twitter debate over Brian Kelly’s job status.
As negative as this season was, there is some positivity in this issue (please don’t put it down, we swear it’s good!). We said goodbye to Malik Zaire and DeShone Kizer and honored the careers of some of our finest walk-ons. We handed out awards to some of the season’s top performers, and we looked ahead to the incoming recruits who hope to restore Notre Dame to greatness.
So here we go again. Despite all the frustration and disappointment, we were lucky enough to witness the 128th chapter in the history book of Notre Dame football. It was not our best, but it was football, and that is more than enough.
We are proud to take the time to look back on this 2016 season and to look forward towards better days to come. We hope you enjoy.
Onward to victory,
Juan Jose Rodriguez
Joe DiSipio