The Most Important Notre Dame Players for the Rest of the Year

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — In a short span of 96 seconds and a brief overtime period, Notre Dame lost to Northwestern, fell to 7-3 and raised a slew of questions heading into its final two games of the regular season.

With 1:36 remaining in regulation, Irish senior running back Cam McDaniel ran to the right side and fumbled. Northwestern drove down the field, tied the game and won it in overtime.

Almost exactly one month ago, the Irish were undefeated and ranked fifth in the country heading into a prime-time showdown with Florida State. Even after the last-minute loss to the Seminoles, Notre Dame looked like a surefire top-10 or top-15 team at the worst. Now, the Irish are out of the Top 25.

So with two games remaining in the regular season—a home meeting with Louisville on Saturday and the rivalry matchup with USC the following weekend—who are the most important Irish players? These aren’t necessarily the best or most-used players on the team, but they’ll all need to be at the top of their game for the Irish to make strides.

Everett Golson

Rick Scuteri/Associated Press

Naturally, Notre Dame goes as Everett Golson goes. His mixed performance against the Wildcats on Saturday—21-of-40 for 287 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and 78 rushing yards, a score and a fumble—aptly sums up his season. There’s been plenty of good; there’s no debating that. But costly mistakes seem inevitable at this point for the second-year starter.

On Saturday, Golson’s biggest blunder was a third-quarter fumble. Notre Dame had 1st-and-goal from the Northwestern 5-yard line, and Golson was charged with a fumble on a read-option. As Irish head coach Brian Kelly said afterward, many of the recent mistakes have been “critical errors”—turnovers inside the red zone, for instance.

The turnovers have often been grave in nature, and they’ve been plentiful. In his last seven games, Golson has committed 19 turnovers—more than 84 FBS teams have coughed up the entire season.

For Notre Dame to right the ship in its final two regular-season games and manufacture some momentum heading into its bowl game, Golson must be sharper. It’s pretty simple.

Kyle Brindza

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All of a sudden, Notre Dame’s kicking game is a question mark. Irish senior Kyle Brindza entered the season as a Lou Groza Award candidate. The burly Brindza missed eight field goals as a sophomore and six last season; he was trending in the right direction.

Earlier in the year, Brindza’s stat line could be mostly explained by the struggles in the holding game. While new holder Malik Zaire didn’t inspire loads of confidence early on with his miscue on an extra-point attempt, it’s still fair to look further for explanations of Brindza’s kicking problems. He’s now 11-of-19 on field-goal attempts this season after hooking two tries against Northwestern.

“He’s got a new battery in there,” Kelly said after the game. “Probably thinking a little too much. Trying to get him not to think about the hold and he starts thinking about the hold and then you get into rushing your mechanics and, unfortunately, it hurt us today.”

Based on Brindza’s track record, it’s reasonable to assume he’ll turn things around in the final three games of the season. Notre Dame needs him and his points, as the defensive struggles have continued in recent weeks.

Jaylon Smith

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Notre Dame’s defense has been continually gashed in recent weeks, and someone—anyone—needs to step up and start to stop the bleeding.

Irish sophomore linebacker Jaylon Smith has been solid all season, and his role has become even more crucial after senior “Mike” linebacker Joe Schmidt suffered a season-ending ankle injury. Irish junior defensive end Sheldon Day has been terrific too, but Day’s status is up in the air following a knee injury suffered Saturday. We should learn more about Day’s outlook Tuesday when Kelly addresses the media in his weekly press conference.

So Smith will be one of the key cogs counted on to correct things defensively, as the Irish continue to trot out young and inexperienced teammates.

“We’re obviously playing a lot of young guys that are struggling and they’re doing their best, but too many young guys on the field,” Kelly said Saturday. “That’s probably the biggest issue right now that we’re just trying to fight through.”

There’s only so much more Smith can do as just one of 11 players on the defense. He tallied 10 tackles and forced a fumble against the Wildcats, and he leads the squad with 77 tackles. If he can somehow find another gear down the stretch, Smith could lift up the Irish defense.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Mike Monaco is a lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco_ on Twitter.