National Signing Day 2012: Will Notre Dame Have a Top 10 Class After NSD?

Brian Kelly has put together a solid class for Notre Dame so far this recruiting season, but it does not stack up too favorably against the rest of nation's elite teams.

While the Irish have some high-end talent, the recruiting class is not deep enough to be considered one of the 10 best.

The good news is that the top players are very good, starting with quarterback Gunner Kiel. The Indiana native is rated as the top quarterback in the country, according to both Scout.com and Rivals.com.

Kiel was involved in a strange recruiting process that saw him commit and de-commit from Indiana, then commit to LSU, and finally enroll into classes at Notre Dame for the spring semester. Regardless of how he got there, it seems the journey is now over, and he will be on the field in South Bend before long.

Other impressive recruits for 2012 include cornerback Tee Shepard, defensive tackle Sheldon Day and wide receiver Deontay Greenberry.

Unfortunately, the best recruiting classes are the ones that are filled with quality players from top to bottom.

Scouting is an inexact science. This means some of the best players according to experts will flop once they get to the college level. It is much more likely for one 5-star athlete to fail to impress than 10 different 4-star players.

In addition, it takes a lot more than one or two good players to win a championship. More often, a winning team has 30-40 players ready to contribute at all times.

This season, Notre Dame has had a lot of missed opportunities. De-commitments from offensive tackle Taylor Decker and cornerback Ronald Darby severely hurt the class. Tackle Arik Armstead considered the Irish, but instead chose to go to Oregon.

A few top players still have Notre Dame on their list. Receiver Bryce Treggs, safety Nelson Agholor, cornerback Devonte' Neal and even Darby could choose this team on National Signing Day. Unfortunately, few believe that any of these men will play for Brian Kelly.

When these top players make their final selections, schools will start to pass Notre Dame in the team rankings.

Considering there are only 17 current commitments, there is no way that the Irish will end the offseason with a top-10 class.