National Signing Day 2012: Brian Kelly and Coaches Feeling Big-Time Pressure

College football coaches definitely lose sleep as the recruiting process heats up, and the pressure on them gets even worse on national signing day. 

Elite recruits all over the country are making big decisions, but when a coach misses out on a certain player they suffer a major hit. 

Some coaches need to land recruits on national signing day more than others, because if they don't, the future of their program is at stake.

With that said, here are a few coaches feeling big-time pressure on national signing day.

Brian Kelly 

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish had a few top-notch prospects on their radar for Feb. 1, but after guys like Nelson Agholor and Ronald Darby picked different schools, Kelly's 2012 class is hurting. 

Make no mistake about it, the Fighting Irish have a strong 2012 recruiting class. However, not landing those two, and losing Deontay Greenberry, who had been committed for quite some time, was a huge a blow for Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish could have had one of the best classes in the country, but instead they're sitting back and watching other schools pass them in the recruiting rankings. 

With only 17 commits, the Fighting Irish missed out on potentially having a dominant recruiting class. That, along with recent failures on the field, places more pressure on Kelly to start winning big in 2012. 

Gene Chizik 

The Auburn Tigers entered national signing day with the possibility of sky-rocketing in the recruiting rankings. 

They had several highly touted recruits considering them, but the Tigers only managed to bring in just a few of those elite recruits. 

Keeping wide receiver JaQuay Williams from flipping schools was big, as well as landing athlete Ricardo Louis and offensive tackle Avery Young. 

Still, the Tigers have to compete against LSU and Alabama, which puts heat on Chizik since those schools are doing better in recruiting. 

Stefon Diggs is still up for grabs, and getting him will be huge for the Tigers because they have a need for a big-time playmaker since Michael Dyer transferred. 

Mark Richt 

The Georgia Bulldogs have had a solid 2012 recruiting class, and national signing day has been good. 

It started off with a bang by landing talented linebacker Josh Harvey-Clemons, but the problem is that he has yet to sign his national letter of intent. 

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Harvey-Clemons' grandfather, his legal guardian, has yet to sign off on it. Harvey-Clemons told ESPN he is still "100 percent Georgia," but nothing is set in stone just yet, which puts the heat on Richt. 

Richt isn't worrying too much, but after missing out on Avery Young, he needs to make sure Harvey-Clemons sends in that letter of intent, so there is still an immense amount of pressure on him. 

Georgia has a top-notch class, but Harvey-Clemons fills a position of need for the future, and losing him to rival Florida would be a devastating blow.