Notre Dame Football: Are the Irish in Turmoil Heading into Spring Game?

Notre Dame fans have been patiently waiting for years to climb back on top of the college football world. This is one of the most historic programs in the sport, but has only won two bowl games since 1993 and its last double-digit winning season was in 2006.

Many believed last season was going to be the year that Notre Dame turned things around. It had an extremely experienced and talented team. However, careless mistakes and 29 turnovers quickly ended that season before it was able to get off the ground.

Now a new college football season is about to begin, and the Irish are ready to play a spring game this weekend. That being said, it seems like this season may be ending even sooner than the last. The Fighting Irish are facing many issues entering this matchup, with only a few months to go before the opener against Navy.

For one, Brian Kelly is still the head coach. Regardless of how talented he may be, he's looking like a failed experiment right now. He was brought from Cincinnati to get this program on the right track after several other coaches failed to do so. Instead, he's 16-10 in his first two seasons and 1-1 in bowl games.

That's not exactly what Irish fans expected and certainly not worth the two-year extension he was recently given.

Kelly is entering his third season as Notre Dame head coach. If he's not able to shine a little bit more light at the end of the tunnel, his job security will be in question more than ever before. The pressure has been heating up since last year's loss to South Florida shocked everyone, and it will only get worse if Kelly produces another sub-par season for Notre Dame.

There aren't many coaches out there that are on a hotter seat than Kelly. This season will likely determine how much longer Notre Dame wants to stick with him.

There are also questions at the quarterback and wide receiver positions. Quarterback shouldn't be much of an issue because the Irish have four very talented players to choose from. It's really only a question of who's going to step up and separate himself from the pack.

On the other hand, at wide receiver, somebody has to step up and become a playmaker for this offense with star receiver Michael Floyd preparing for the NFL draft. 

Tight end Tyler Eifert will not be able to do it alone. Kelly must find somebody to play the best season of their Notre Dame career to help this offense out. There is talent in T.J. Jones and Theo Reddick, but are either one capable of becoming a true No. 1 option or have we seen them hit their ceiling already?

In addition, the team must also deal with the the transfer of defensive end Aaron Lynch, who was a huge part of this defense heading into the season. As a freshman last year, he only started six games. However, he finished with 33 tackles, seven tackles for loss and led the team with 5.5 sacks.

Lynch is a top talent player and was going to be a key player for a defensive line that struggled to pressure the quarterback a season ago.

Notre Dame also lost several recruits during the offseason and have a brutal schedule to face once the season actually starts.

This group remains a very talented team that returns 15 starters from last season, but the spring could have certainly gone a little bit better than it did. As it stands, there's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding a program that's still trying to climb back on top.