Please don't confuse honest assessment with being negative. I love where the program as a whole is at. I think it's trending in the right direction still. What I don't love is the offense's inconsistencies, specficially surrounding the passing game.
This is where fans divide into groups after a successful season that is capped w/ a nationally embarrassing beat down.
Just b/c a fan is objective doesn’t mean he hates the HC or thinks the program sucks. Some folks call them like they see them. I wish more ND reporters would do that but I understand they must be a bit more removed emotionally from the program.
Then there are fans similar to above that are more about hedging their bets. They are the PTSD fan who gets excited by a season like this and then the other shoe inevitably drops and it’s despairingly “I told you so” time. IMO, it’s a defense mechanism vs the ND haters. They try to get ahead of an obvious beat down by predicting the worst. While they’re doing that, however; ND fans usually chime in by saying “you should go root for another team” so this MO is not a very wise one.
Then you have Pollyanna who thinks “what tho the odds”. There’s nothing wrong w/ this among ND fans but they look silly when discussing CFP w/ fans of all stripes. At least acknowledge ND vs Clemson was a mismatch and hope that they can be competitive vs Bama knowing it probably ends ugly. This is the definition of fan...short for fanatic...nothing wrong with it & is probably the healthiest way to look at fandom.
I’m sure most of us have related to all three of the above at some time. Look at all the game day threads. For games 1-10, most of us were on the same page. From the ACC CG on the threads get longer b/c the opinions get more diverse & we fans need a place to vent & debate. That’s where message boards come in. Embrace it or find another outlet. We are all rooting for the same team. Agree to disagree and hope for the best. It’s just a game.
And lastly, most of us don’t know each other personally so it’s extremely easy to take typed posts out of context. For instance, this post will be misread and called out when it’s really just miscommunication and that person who disagrees is closer to being on the same page than they realize. I am as guilty of misinterpreting posts as anyone on here.