Notre Dame Football: The Difference with This Six-Win Team

Brian Kelly was hired to reignite Notre Dame football and get it back to where it was during the glory days of Rockne through Holtz.

Kelly knew it wouldn't be easy.

The program was coming off three seasons well below Notre Dame standards. It started with a 3-9 year, followed by a 7-6 and then a 6-6 season in which the team declined to accept a bowl invitation.

Looking purely at the record, the Fighting Irish are 6-5 this year, with one regular season game and then a bowl game.

There really isn't much of an improvement.

Another loss to USC would make another 6-6 season, and if they lose the bowl game they would actually have a losing record. That would bring the haters out in full force the entire offseason.

What the haters will overlook is that this is a much-improved program under Kelly, despite what the record indicates. For starters, Kelly has dealt with a lot of injuries to key players on offense. Dayne Crist, Kyle Rudolph and Armando Allen are all done for the season. Theo Riddick has also missed significant time, and even Michael Floyd missed one game.

Add the injuries to the fact that Kelly's offense is a completely different animal than that of Charlie Weis'. That makes learning the new system even tougher.

On the defensive side of the ball, Defensive Coordinator Bob Diaco was left with the players that were recruited for a John Tenuta system of basically all blitzing. Diaco's defense requires these players to play with a little bit more discipline. They struggled with it early but have really come on the last three games. It seems they give up one good drive a game and that's the first one.

While all of those factors are important, there is one that really stands out: The way Notre Dame is winning and losing this year.

Going back to last year, the team that finished 6-6 was six plays away from being 12-0. That is a fact, despite what the haters say. All six of their losses were by a touchdown or less.

At the same time though, they were also four plays away from being 2-10. The Irish only comfortably beat Nevada and Washington State. Their other four wins were squeakers that also could've gone the other way.

Coming back to this year, this team is three plays away from being 9-2. If Crist doesn't get hurt in the Michigan game, it may not have even been as close. When Crist came back in, he brought them back. Unfortunately, the defense gave up a late touchdown to Dernard Robinson.

Then came the Michigan State game, which might get an ESPY for game of the year. It took a gimmick play in overtime with a fake field goal for the Spartans to get the win. It is also worth mentioning that MSU is a game away from a Big Ten championship, with a win this weekend over Penn State.

The loss came to Stanford, whose program is clearly better, at this point, than Notre Dame's. On that day, the Irish got manhandled by a better team. The next loss was Navy. Though that game was ugly, and I don't want to take anything away from Navy, they beat up a depleted team.

The next week was Tulsa in which the Irish just basically handed them the game. Do I have to say any more?

So the Irish still are close in most of their losses, but the difference is that this year you can't say they are four plays away from 2-9. Look at their six wins. They completely dominated Purdue, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Western Michigan, Utah and Army. The most impressive win was nationally-ranked Utah. None of those wins could have gone the other way, unlike last year.

With one game to go against arch-rival USC, there is reason for Irish fans to be optimistic. Some of the experts are even predicting an Irish victory over the Trojans. Just that has been a long time coming.