Notre Dame Can Be Taken Seriously Again

Notre Dame has the most storied history in college football.

I've been to the campus on a fall Saturday afternoon, (with no game, thank god no traffic) and just felt it. You can sense the history standing in front of the stadium, and looking at the golden dome.

But in recent years, the football program hasn't been nearly the same. Sure, they have been to some BCS bowl games, and they've had great players in the last few years.

But underneath the fasade of crap scheduling lies a pretty average team. Against teams with winning records since Charlie Weis took over, Notre Dame is 3-16.

You read that right.

When the heat was on to win a bowl game, Notre Dame accepted a bowl invitation to play a .500 Hawaii team from a bad conference.

Whoopie.

But Charlie has proven one thing—recruiting can still be done at a high level there. His recruiting classes have been among the best in the nation the last few years. Now, whether those classes pan out remains to be seen (ask Nebraska fans where great recruiting gets you). But the sheer fact that it can be done is promising.

Weis may not be the man to lead Notre Dame. Or he may be. We don't know. But the signs are there that Notre Dame could once again be a national powerhouse, and a team that we have to take seriously.

And you never know, maybe, just maybe, they'll beat a good team.

Stranger things have happened.