Notre Dame Football: Why the Irish Are Doomed to Fail in 2012

Notre Dame will not improve on their 8-5 season of last year.

The Irish have been a team that has had a lot of success in their past. Recently, the team has struggled to get back to a BCS game. A record of 8-5 is not something that Notre Dame fans are happy with. They expect the best from their team especially after a promising season last year.

The first problem the Irish will have for this season is the quarterback position. Tommy Rees had a good season completion percentage wise, as he completed 65.0 percent of his passes. However, Rees had 19 touchdowns to 12 interceptions. Rees had the habit of throwing an untimely interception. If Notre Dame is going to have any success this season, that will have to change. 

Everett Golson is a talented young quarterback that is waiting to get his turn. He has the potential to lead Notre Dame to successful seasons in the future. Coach Brian Kelly may want to get Golsen some experience this season over Rees. If that happens, Notre Dame will still struggle at quarterback. Everett will have to go through a learning curve and use this season as a building block for future success.

Defensively, the Fighting Irish have a great front seven. The secondary will be a big question mark as they have little to no experience outside of the safety position. Inexperienced cornerbacks are more likely to make bad penalties or bite on double moves.

This inexperience will not be helpful in stopping late-game collapses. Games against Michigan and Florida State are games where the defense played well but blew it late. There seems to be a problem putting together an entire game. The team is good in spurts and show what kind of potential they have. However, there is no consistency. They need to show that they can have consistency before the fans can become believers.

As mentioned, this defense is solid upfront. Defensive coordinator Bob Diaco has a great group of seven players he can use to rush the quarterback. While the Irish were 24th in the nation in points allowed, they need to improve. The offense will struggle and the defense will need to play at a high level all year. Diaco needs to incorporate more blitz packages into his defense to help take pressure off the secondary. This is unlikely to happen but it needs to get done to help prevent another disappointing season for Notre Dame.

The best case scenario I've seen from the fans is a record of 9-3. This seems unlikely though as the Irish have to many inexperienced players on their roster and no quarterback who can lead them this season. A more likely scenario is a repeat of last season.

There is no improvement on this Notre Dame team which is why they will fail in 2012.