Notre Dame Football: What If Dayne Crist Never Made It to South Bend?

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish faithful have to be asking themselves that question heading into a Week 6 contest against the Air Force Falcons.

Sophomore Tommy Rees would have certainly led the team to a win over South Florida, as the early deficit was just too much to make up in the 23-20 loss.  The Fighting Irish finished that game with a 508-254 advantage in total yards.

I can almost guarantee in going back to Week 2 that a 1-0 Notre Dame team would have held off the Michigan Wolverines' late charge. 

Instead of a 3-2 record and sitting outside the rankings, Notre Dame would definitely be in the Top 10 nationally with an unblemished record.

For goodness sake, Michigan is No. 12 in the country and the program hasn't even left Ann Arbor.

Rees has been nothing short of remarkable, throwing a scoring strike in 10 consecutive games, while the running game is starting to gain traction.

Senior Michael Floyd is one of the best wide receivers ever to play inside Notre Dame Stadium, owning six school records, including most receiving yards and touchdown catches.

On the other side of the ball, second-year head coach Brian Kelly has a defense that is putting up numbers that fans in South Bend haven't seen since 1989.

Notre Dame doesn't play defense, right? 

Well they used to, and they are getting after it on that side of the ball in 2011.

So the question is: What if Dayne Crist never made it to South Bend?

Some would argue that the program's crazed fanbase would already be purchasing round-trip tickets to New Orleans for Jan. 9, 2012—the BCS Championship Game.