Notre Dame Football: Can the Fighting Irish Win a National Championship?

With Coach Kelly and his staff entering their second season at Notre Dame, expectations are high in South Bend.

Fresh off a dominating performance at the Sun Bowl over rival Miami, the outlook for the 2011 season is bright. The Irish return 16 starters from last year's team, strength and speed gains have been made in the winter and spring, and Coach Kelly and his staff secured a very good recruiting class.

In addition, Michael Floyd has been reinstated and will be allowed to finish his degree and play in his final season at Notre Dame. 

There is a great deal of excitement in South Bend surrounding the football program and although most would agree that this may not be a national championship season, the Notre Dame faithful are starting to believe a national championship may be in Coach Kelly's future.

For those who watch the program closely, the expectation of a national championship season in the not-so-distant future may not be an unreasonable one. However, for this to occur it will need to be the "perfect storm."

Coach Kelly and his staff have a number of things going in their favor. The Notre Dame football facilities are first rate and comparable with the top programs in the country. This demonstrates to every potential recruit the high level of commitment the University has made to the success of the football program. It also demonstrates that the program is on solid ground in terms of financial support.

The University has an outstanding coach in Coach Kelly and he has assembled an outstanding supporting cast. Besides being successful teachers of the game, Kelly's staff has demonstrated that they are relentless recruiters and this bodes well for the long-term success of the program.

Coach Kelly, with the support of athletic director Jack Swarbrick, introduced a training table to the program in his first year and this change alone played a key role in the success of the program late in the season.

The University appears to be becoming more flexible when evaluating student athletes. This has allowed Coach Kelly to land one of his most sought after recruits this past year. This is significant because the last time this type of flexibility was exercised was during the Holtz years when he secured the services of Tony Rice and John Foley as Proposition 48 athletes.

Finally, it appears as though Residence Life is now taking a more holistic approach to discipline as evidenced by their willingness to reinstate Michael Floyd. By looking at his situation more broadly, Residence Life has made an unprecedented decision which in the long run may effect, in a positive way, other students and student athletes on campus.  

The football pundits point out though, that despite these changes, Notre Dame will never contend for a national championship because they cannot recruit the number of speed athletes that an SEC or west coast team can recruit and because of the still-rigorous academic standards, Notre Dame will never be able to recruit the top football athletes in the land.

While this may be the case, Notre Dame as a national championship contender still seems to be within the realm of possibilities. However, there are a number of things that must happen to put the Irish in a position to win it all.

The Irish must have a favorable schedule that includes playing against a highly ranked team. This is necessary because a win over a highly ranked opponent may put Notre Dame in a position in which the team is eligible to compete for a national championship. Great care must be taken in how this opponent is chosen. It must be a program that matches well with the personnel and style of play of the Irish.

Coach Kelly must also modify his style of play to suit the type of personnel he is able to recruit. As a midwestern school, Coach Kelly may find it difficult to recruit enough speed from the south and west to play the up-tempo brand of football he likes to play and go toe-to-toe with the likes of Florida, Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Oregon.

Kelly may have to rethink his offensive philosophy a bit and adopt a style that more closely resembles Irish teams of the past that emphasized power football. Stanford demonstrated that BCS success was still possible playing power football. In fact, Stanford and Jim Harbaugh may have provided Coach Kelly with a blueprint for national championship success.

Some will point to the embarrassing loss Stanford suffered at the hands of the Oregon Ducks as evidence that power football is no match for the athletic, fast, up-tempo teams that are currently dominating college football, which brings me to my last point.

Stanford was in that game until the fourth quarter when it slipped away. If Coach Kelly, his staff and his team can execute a game plan to near perfection for four quarters, they certainly can beat any team in the country and secure their first national championship under Kelly.

While it is certainly not an easy path to a national championship, the conditions seem to be right for Coach Kelly and the Fighting Irish to make a run in the next few years.

With stability in the staff, continued success in recruiting, a favorable schedule and a few breaks along the way, the Notre Dame faithful may see their once storied program return to a place of prominence as one of the top teams in the land.