Notre Dame Football 2011: The 5 Most Recent Signs That Notre Dame Is Cursed

Every die-hard sports fan who spends their time rooting for a perennial loser loves to search for sympathy and pity by telling you that their team is cursed, jinxed, doomed, etc.

Most of the time, it’s all nonsense, but every now and then, there are some events that make you stop and think, maybe, just maybe, there is some weird voodoo kind of vibes surrounding the team.

Right now, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are searching for answers after an 0-2 start to the 2011 season, and while some reasons are obvious (i.e. turnovers), who knows, maybe college football’s most storied program could be cursed.

Since the turn of the millennium, we’ve watched the decline of one of the sport’s great empires, as the Irish have gone from college football superpower to an average also-ran.

So have the Irish now turned into the Chicago Cubs of college football?

Maybe it's not as crazy as it sounds.

Jonas Gray’s Fumble

Notre Dame couldn’t have asked for a better start to the 2011 season.

On the first drive of the year, the Irish took the ball from South Florida and proceeded to go 76 yards right down the field with ease, ending up on the four yard line before the Bulls could even blink.

The Irish had all the early momentum and looked like they were going to go in for a nice, early touchdown. Then, running back Jonas Gray fumbled the ball right into the awaiting hands of South Florida cornerback Kayvon Webster, who promptly scooped it up and ran 96 yards for a stunning South Florida score.

That deflating sudden change of events sucked all the life out of 80,000 fans, and it turned out to be a huge swing in momentum.

The Notre Dame offense never quite recovered after that and the Irish eventually fell in a shocking 23-20 loss to South Florida.

Down Came the Rain

What made the opening loss to South Florida even more unbearable was the torrential thunderstorms that delayed the game and stretched it out to over six hours.

Maybe all the spirits of Notre Dame’s past were fed up watching the first half performance, and they decided to let the team know about it.

The Michigan Debacle

The first night game at the Big House managed to live up to the hype, and it turned out to have one of the wildest finishes we’ve seen so far this season.

After Notre Dame receiver Theo Riddick scored a go-ahead touchdown with 30 seconds remaining, it seemed as if the Irish had the game in the bag.

But then the defense collapsed on the final two plays, making Denard Robinson look like a superstar, on their way to eventually giving up the decisive touchdown with two seconds left.

It’s finishes like that one that just make you shake your head in disbelief.

Dayne Crist’s Implosion

Dayne Crist arrived in South Bend as one of the most highly-touted quarterback recruits in the 2008 class.

The 5-star prospect, who arrived via Notre Dame high school in Sherman Oaks, California, seemed like he had the perfect pedigree to be a star for the Irish.

After waiting behind Jimmy Clausen, Crist finally had his chance to shine last season, but he struggled early and eventually injuries caught up with him.

Brian Kelly had enough faith in Crist to start him in the season-opener, but his trust wasn’t rewarded, as Crist looked like a disaster before being pulled after one half of play.

Crist certainly isn’t the only big-name recruit who has failed to live up to expectations at Notre Dame recently, but besides Clausen, he is by far the most disappointing of the bunch.

Brian Kelly’s Not the Savior We Were Promised

When Brian Kelly first took the job at Notre Dame, we were told that he was the guy that was finally going to make the Irish nationally relevant again.

After all of his success at Cincinnati, Kelly arrived with high expectations, which he has failed to come close to meeting yet.

He is now 8-7 in his first 15 games, and he doesn’t look like an upper-echelon coach.

Yes, he still has time to turn the program around, but so far, the results haven’t been all that encouraging.

Success starts at the top, and in recent years the Irish have struggled to find a head man who is capable of handling the duty.