2012 NFL Draft Is a Positive Sign for Notre Dame Football

Brian Kelly's first two years at Notre Dame have been back-to-back 8-5 seasons. That is quite mediocre and certainly not up to standards for the Fighting Irish. Therefore, the Irish faithful had to be scratching their heads on whether or not the team was progressing under Kelly. In fairness to Kelly, the team was less then mediocre before he took over. Honestly, they were terrible.

Since Lou Holtz retired in 1996, the team has only made it to three major bowl games. All three times they got blown out. In total they had lost eight straight bowl games. The bowl game they broke it in was the 2008 Hawaii Bowl. No disrespect, but that doesn't exactly make Notre Dame a power.

Two of those three major bowl games were really the direct result of a great quarterback named Brady Quinn. Take him off those BCS teams and the Irish would win three games. In fact, that is what happened the next year. Two 6-6 seasons followed.

Notre Dame needed to make a change, so Kelly replaced Charlie Weis. Kelly's first year started up and down, but they ended with a four-game winning streak, and beating Miami in the Sun Bowl to finish 8-5 which was a big improvement.

Then another 8-5 season would lead many to doubt the direction of the program. An 0-2 start featured two losses to teams that Notre Dame dominated in many ways, but the Irish killed themselves with mistakes and turnovers. Notre Dame did go on a roll before hitting a wall against USC. Then they rolled again until ending with two disappointing losses—first to Stanford, then Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl.

If you just look at the record, you say there was no improvement. However, any football fan would know that is silly. Any Irish fan knows that the difference between the two seasons featured lots of improvement. Watching the game film is night and day.

Of course, Notre Dame has its haters who will only dwell on the negative and say no improvement based on the record.

After this NFL draft over the past three days, I think there is definitely room for Irish fans to say that the program is headed in the right direction. For the first time since 2007, when the Cleveland Browns drafted Quinn, a Notre Dame player got taken in the first round (with the 13th pick in the 2012 NFL draft, the Arizona Cardinals pick, from the University of Notre Dame, Michael Floyd).

Floyd was actually the highest a Notre Dame player was taken since Bryant Young went with the seventh pick in the 1994 draft. He was also the highest drafted Irish wide receiver since Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown went sixth in 1988.

It didn't stop there (with the 29th pick in the 2012 NFL draft, the Minnesota Vikings pick, from the University of Notre Dame, Harrison Smith). Smith is the highest drafted defensive player since Renaldo Wynn went 21st in 1997. Jeff Burris was the last defensive back selected as high as Smith when he went 27th in 1994 to the Buffalo Bills. It was also the first time in 18 years two Notre Dame players were taken in the first round.

That is a clear sign that Kelly is developing the talent, and a sign that Notre Dame is on the way back to the top. Unfortunately, the next three rounds didn't feature any Notre Dame players. Then came the fifth round, which saw Robert Blanton join Smith with the Vikings and Darius Fleming go to the San Francisco 49ers.

It was disappointing not to see Gary Gray or Jonas Gray get drafted. Jonas did have the ACL injury late in the year, which understandably scared teams away. Hopefully both get free-agent contracts.

Now that the draft is over, the season will be here faster than we know, and Year 3 is always a big year for a coach. This is no exception. This NFL draft gives me reason to be hopeful.