Notre Dame Should Reach a BCS Game This Season

Some of the few people who actually bothered to read my articles have ask me a question. Why do you believe that Brian Kelly can turn Notre Dame around so quickly? If some of these people would go back to last year, they will see that back then I predicted similar results. 

When I wrote my articles last year, I was examining the evidence I had at hand. First, I believed the offensive line would improve as the coach responsible for the poor performance was replaced. Second, the offense had great speed and experience. Finally, I thought that the defense would bring enough pressure to compensate for lack of experience and skill. Well, after a promising start we all know what happened last season. So what went wrong?

I believe that conditioning played a major role. Several former players from the Holtz era visited practices and commented on how lax the players were. Although I have no first hand knowledge or proof, given video evidence I would not know what to look for. The complete collapse of the team in the last two years seems to show that the players did loose something in the final games. Notre Dame held leads in the fourth quarter in many of those games, yet, could not seal a victory.

I also believe that the offensive line was particularly horrid last year. I did have my concerns, but I would not have believed it possible that any team would be able to shut out Notre Dame for three quarters. The subpar performance of the offense in general, and the line in particular, was the main reason for failure. Some people, like Jeff Kalka, love to overuse statistics and say that Notre Dame had a great offense last year. Well figures do not lie, but liars do figure as the saying goes. Notre Dame only scored 40 points once last year. They also did not average 30 points a game. Huge amounts of yards do not always translate into points. You need points to win a football game. 

Others like to point out how woeful the defense was last year. However, they seem to forget that we knew that going into the season. In fact, I think the defense played better than expected in two games last year; Nevada and Boston College. While Boston College did complete some passes, it was the shut down of their running game which allowed the victory. Meanwhile, the offense in that game, played just well enough to win. The defense did fall apart in many games at last year. However, Notre Dame fans depended on a fantastic offense to save games last year. Quite frankly, that offense rarely appeared. That again was primarily the fault of the offensive line. 

While the offensive line woes were an integral part of the problem, Injuries also played a role with the difficulties experienced last year. However, the most frustrating fact was that Notre Dame was able to overcome the absence of key players in the beginning of the year. When the players returned, Notre Dame lost every game. Lack of conditioning, leadership, and commitment may have caused these losses. 

According to what I have read, Coach Kelly has changed all of this. He is using systems that mesh well with his players. He has installed a defense that again is designed to maximize the use of his players abilities. He has also made conditioning a much greater priority than it was under the previous staff. Now we do not know if this will produce immediate results on the field. We do know that Notre Dame was not defeated by more than seven points last year. I do not think a major overhaul was needed. That is the main reason I expect great things this year from the Irish.