Notre Dame Football: Why the Fighting Irish Won't Reach Relevance Until 2014

Relevance. National respect. BCS invitations. Those are three most sought after things by anyone and everyone associated with Notre Dame football.

But how close is the program to turning those dreams into realities?

Brian Kelly has brought the program closer to that goal, but heaping loads of work remain to be done. Kelly himself actually played a part in Notre Dame regressing.

The third-year head coach's failure to manage the circus that is the quarterback controversy, as well as his and his staff's very public recruiting failures have slapped Notre Dame with a long journey back to being invited to sit at the big kids' table along with Alabama, USC, LSU, etc.

Those "big kids" have coaching staffs who have developed their programs around two main components: a sure-handed quarterback and a stout defense.

Take, for example, Nick Saban and Alabama, last season's national champions. Roll Tide was led by a quarterback who made good decisions on a consistent basis in A.J. McCarron. The redshirt sophomore only turned the ball over seven times in 2011, throwing five interceptions and losing two fumbles.

For a quick comparison, Fighting Irish quarterback Tommy Rees threw 14 interceptions in 2011, with a few fumbles mixed in there.

A quarterback who turns the ball over at as high of a rate as Rees did will only doom a football team, as witnessed by Notre Dame's stumble to an 8-5 record after beginning the season with hopes of receiving an invitation to a BCS game.

Along with Alabama, other BCS participants also had the luxury of having a stellar quarterback under center. Oklahoma State had Brandon Weeden, Stanford had Andrew Luck, Wisconsin had Russell Wilson, Oregon had Darron Thomas and the list goes on.

Each of those quarterbacks, along with McCarron share one common trait: each makes good decisions with the football on a consistent basis.

Notre Dame will not be able to climb to the summit that is the BCS without a solid quarterback.

Aside from having an excellent quarterback, those BCS participants also had great rush defenses.

Alabama and LSU, last season's national championship participants, ranked first and fifth in rush defense nationally. Notre Dame's rush defense was a far cry from those two, finishing the 2011 season ranked 47th nationally, yielding 138.92 rush yards per game.

The Irish figure to be an improved bunch in this category in 2012, with Aaron Lynch, Stephon Tuitt and Louis Nix anchoring the defensive line, and linebacker Manti Te'o returning for his senior season.

Let's not just leave it at rush defense, though. Let's include passing defense, too.

The Crimson Tide and the Tigers finished 2011 ranked first and eighth nationally in that category, while Notre Dame finished the season sandwiched between Akron and California at 38th nationally in pass defense.

Unfortunately for the Irish, they'll be lucky to finish 38th or better in 2012, as Lo Wood and Bennett Jackson will be defensive coordinator Bob Diaco's starting cornerbacks. Worth mentioning is the fact that the group only goes five deep.

Passing defense won't be a quick fix either, as Notre Dame lost out on heralded cornerback prospect Ronald Darby during the past recruiting cycle. Tee Shepard, another celebrated defensive back recruit, committed to Notre Dame, only to leave the school earlier this week.

That leaves the Irish scarily thin at the position, and may take two to three years to truly fix.

All of this leads me to believe that Notre Dame will not reach the pinnacle of relevance until 2014 at the very earliest.

Will the fanbase and alumni give Brian Kelly that much time to turn his program into a winner?

We'll see.