I didn't think through my wording on that too well. Kiel and Lynch definitely aren't fully similar situations; obviously there's at least one common thread, that both decided ND wasn't the best place for them, but beyond that they're pretty different. I think in a sense playing time may have been involved with Lynch, but more as the symptom than the problem. He couldn't play nice in the sandbox, and I think he didn't put too much into learning his play responsibilities on the field (from what I've read, there are hints that he was not the most coachable guy). The staff may have made it clear that if he didn't clean up his act he wasn't going to be a three-down player, which added to distance/weather/baby/etc. led him to leave. But like I said, PT there is the symptom and not the issue.
While it's very early in the Kiel saga here, this looks like a much more cut and dried case of playing time as the simple cause. In any case, whatever was behind their decisions they're just two isolated data points right now. So I'm not ready to say our program is at a place where elite talent transfers because it can't see the field for one reason or another, but we may be headed there.
