Notre Dame Football: Early Success Proves Irish Are BCS-Ready

Notre Dame has opened the season 2-0 and is ready to continue to a 10-win season and a BCS bowl berth. You may scream that it’s too early and the team isn’t equipped to achieve it, but it has the tools to make it happen.

Following their 50-10 destruction of Navy in Dublin, we began to see what can happen when the Irish play error-free football.

This isn’t remotely achievable over the course of an entire season, but head coach Brian Kelly can take the things his team did right and press them into service every game.

Like all football teams, this starts with the quarterback. Notre Dame plays Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford, Oklahoma and BYU this year, so limiting turnovers is the key here.

If you consistently turn the ball over, you consistently will lose games. This was ably illustrated by the team in 2011 as the interceptions piled up — 17 in total.

However, against Navy we saw an actual unit in place, with quarterback Everett Golson running the offense and taking the safe plays, much like a rookie entering the NFL.

Utilizing Golson’s ability as a runner will also help to negate his errors. Kelly had dual-threat quarterbacks at Central Michigan and Cincinnati (via AthlonSports.com) so he has the knowledge to put together useful plays that enhance Golson’s skills.

Not to go crazy with the comparisons, but Alex Smith did alright for the 49ers last year when he did the simple things right, and did them often.

The Irish have six defensive starters returning to a unit that had considerable success last year, ranking 44^th nationally against the run (via TeamRankings.com). As shown against Navy, stopping the run protects the secondary, and the points dry up.

Even against Purdue —which wasn’t the best example of Notre Dame’s capabilities— Golson went 21-for-31 with a touchdown, as well as throwing no interceptions.

On the defensive line, Louis Nicks recorded 1.5 sacks and the rest of the linemen held Purdue to 90 yards on the ground.

The secondary got in on the action too, with Bennett Jackson bringing down two interceptions while demonstrating good awareness of route-running and angles.

Notre Dame might not play the prettiest football, but it’s started with two wins. Last year it went 0-2 to start the season. The differences are already noticeable, in both the performances and the results.