Notre Dame Football: Why the Irish Are in Crisis Mode

Waking up this morning, I was hoping that yesterday was simply a bad dream. Unfortunately, it wasn't. It happened.

What was supposed to be the first victory on the road to the BCS turned out to be the first hurdle in the way of that destination for Brian Kelly and company.

Heading into Kelly's second season, the team was supposed to be more mature and experienced while avoiding the silly mistakes that plagued it last season.

Boy, I wish that would have been true.

As Kelly said following the game, the reason for the ugly loss was "mistake after mistake after mistake."

He's exactly right. You're never going to win when your team loses the turnover battle 5-0.

It started with Jonas Gray's fumble at the USF one-yard line, which Kayvon Webster returned 96 yards for a touchdown. Then there was the head-scratching interception Dayne Crist threw in USF's end zone.

Follow that with Theo Riddick's inability to handle punt returns, and the picture becomes much clearer.

How could a team that should be essentially mistake-free make so many of them, including eight penalties for 73 costly yards?

The concise answer to that question is mental toughness, something Kelly has been preaching since taking the job.

It's alarming that Kelly's squad is lacking mental toughness despite having a full season of experience including a bowl win under their belt. What is it going to take for the Irish to develop that mental toughness?

Your answer is as good as mine is at this point. It's all up to the coaching staff to fix the many, many problems surrounding the team.

Even Coach Kelly said that he is going to have to make sure that his team "understands what it takes to win football games."

That's a very tough pill to swallow.