Exactly why would anyone blame the coaches or players. The coaches over the last 8 years have done a good job considering their limitations compared to other schools. If you want to blame anyone for not winning a New Years 6 bowl in 26 years then blame the administration. Until Notre Dame lowers their academic standards it’s going to be a nightmare competing against Teams like Texas, Texas A&M, bama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson. These teams are offering bags of money and many other promises to kids along with other perks to come there. There’s a reason why A&M landed 5-6 5 star kids in 2021. Soon you’ll see USC catching up and start doing the same thing.
Most of the top QBs are actually smart guys with good grades. ND was a dynamic QB away in 2018. Just better QB recruiting even with current academic standards I think is enough for ND to win a natty.
Trevor Lawrence, Tua, and Justin Fields were scholar athletes, they had the grades for Notre Dame. Bless Ian Book but if ND had one of those guys on the 2018 team, they could have beat Clemson. Defense did a number on Clemson expect for the 5 minute explosion where Julian Love was out of the game.
Bryce Young went to a Catholic High School, had the grades for Notre Dame.
Those 2018-2020 teams weren’t getting whipped in the trenches like 2012 (Except for that awful 2019 game against Michigan), they needed a dynamic QB.
I acknowledge even if those players didn’t have the grades for ND per say, they may not fit the mold of stereotypical ND athlete . But that’s what Marcus Freeman talked about . There are players that fit Notre Dame, that might not realize they fit Notre Dame.