Notre Dame’s offense excelled under Chip Long, but not when it mattered

Chip Long authored the two highest-scoring seasons of Brian Kelly’s time at Notre Dame, along with two of the four best-gaining offenses. Those are inexact measures of an offense’s effectiveness, but they are still the black-and-white results on paper.

The Irish offense produced with Long as its offensive coordinator. Broadly, this cannot be argued. Yet, he and Notre Dame parted ways Wednesday.

Time will be spent discussing philosophical differences, speculating about clashes in approach and fretting about the coaching form of nepotism. The reasoning for Long’s departure may be more fundamental than all of that: For the Irish to take the next step firmly into college football’s top tier, its…