Notre Dame’s turnaround from its 2016 debacle to a 2018 Playoff berth has been credited in part to Irish head coach Brian Kelly’s reinvention, to director of athletics Jack Swarbrick’s patience two years ago, to this season’s quarterback change after a month and the offensive outburst it sparked. They all deserve pieces of that applause.
So, too, do the current sophomores, a class that came together under one coaching staff and still signed with a new one in place, a class that hardly wavered from wanting to go to Notre Dame despite a season too ripe with missteps to be forgotten, and a class critical to this unbeaten run.