Notre Dame Football: What Problems Must Brian Kelly Address in the Spring Game?

Spring has come and gone for most college football teams and on Saturday, it will be the same case for Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish will host their annual Blue-Gold Game as they try to answer a few questions and get a better feel for the team heading into the fall.

Of course, the spring won't provide an answer to everything, but it does give the coaches something to think about as they take the next few months off and wait for August to arrive.

With the spring game just around the corner, here are a couple of issues head coach Brian Kelly must address.

Who's going to play quarterback?

A great performance in the spring game won't determine who the starter is, but it will go a long way heading into the fall and could separate that player from the pack. There are currently four players that will be battling for the position (Tommy Rees, Everett Golson, Andrew Hendrix and Gunner Kiel), which makes this a very intense competition.

Head Coach Brian Kelly has already said that a decision won't be made until a week or two before the regular season opener against Navy takes place. But that doesn't mean the coaches won't be watching this position closely. A solid performance in the spring game is the first step in being named the starter.

Rees has the most experience, Golson is the dual-threat and exciting player, Hendrix has the strong arm and Kiel is the 5-star recruit that everyone is drooling over.

This is the position that everybody will be watching tomorrow.

Find playmakers

Notre Dame will take their time with the quarterback situation, but regardless of who wins the competition, they need to find playmakers. Wide receiver Michael Floyd will be drafted in the NFL sometime next week, which forces several players to step up to the plate to try an replace his production. 

Many will look at tight end Tyler Eifert, who caught 63 passes last season. New offensive coordinator Chuck Martin is extremely excited about the possibilities and plans to use him in many creative ways this year.

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"Eifert could be at Z or X or W, he could be a running back. We've got a package where Eifert can play running back. I don't know if we'll hand him the ball ever, but he could be our running back and throw the ball to him," Martin said via ESPN.

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Other players who could emerge are speedster Robby Toma, wide receiver DaVaris Daniels (who's been making plays this spring), Theo Riddick and T.J. Jones. 

The bottom line is that Notre Dame has a great defense that's coming back and should be one of the better units in the country. The offense has pieces in place, but don't really have guys that can be game changers and lead this team to victory. Brian Kelly has to discover a couple guys during the spring game that have that ability. 

Stay healthy

We see it far too often and we've already seen in this season with Missouri quarterback James Franklin and USC running back Tre Madden. Key players get hurt in practice and either miss the entire season or a portion of it. Overall, the spring game is just an overhyped practice and doesn't mean much and it's certainly not important enough to lose a key player for any length of time.

The spring game does provide players the opportunity to move up the depth chart, but remaining healthy is a victory in itself. This is a concern that Brian Kelly must be aware of and address accordingly.