Notre Dame Football: 5 Reasons Why the Irish Will Finish the Season 10-2

Brian Kelly's Notre Dame football team improved to 4-2 with their 59-33 victory over Air Force on a picture-perfect Saturday in South Bend.

The game was not nearly as close as the final score indicated, as the Irish had their third-string defense in for two late Air Force touchdowns.

With every Fighting Irish win, the first two losses become more and more painful, as their fans know they simply gave the first two games away with turnover after turnover.

Had the Irish not beaten themselves during the first two weeks of the season, they would be sitting comfortably at 6-0 and ranked No. 9 in the nation. Instead, they find themselves unranked and unable to crack the Top 25 until they beat USC at home in two weeks.

But that's neither here nor there; let's look ahead to why Notre Dame will still finish 10-2 (like many projected) and in a BCS Bowl.

1. Manageable Schedule

The Irish better take care of business this season because their 2012 schedule will go down as the most difficult schedule in the history of Notre Dame football.

An unimpressive USC team visits South Bend in two weeks, a team that lost at Arizona State by 21 and beat Minnesota by two points. The Irish should take care of business at home against the Trojans ahead of a four game stretch that includes:  Navy, Wake Forest, Maryland, and Boston College.

There is absolutely no reason why the Irish shouldn't be 9-2 heading into their prime-time matchup in Palo Alto against Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal.

Notre Dame is every bit as talented as Stanford and will have an opportunity to win that game if they remain composed by not turning the ball over in a hostile environment.

2. Continue Their Recent Trend of Not Turing the Ball over

15 turnover in the first four games, 0 turnovers in the last two games—what else is their to say?

How about this for a stat—the Irish scored 97 points total in their first four games while scoring another 97 points total in their last two games.  Any idea what the difference might be?

Look, if this team doesn't beat itself, they can hang with any team in America simply based on the talent level on both sides of the ball.

Whether or not they continue this recent trend of not giving the ball away remains to be seen.

3. Running Game Continues to Impress

How long has it been since we've seen such a powerful rushing attack like this in South Bend?  Whether it's Cierre Wood or Jonas Gray or now even change of pace quarterback Andrew Hendrix, this team has proven the ability to impose it's will on any opponent.

266 yards rushing on 9.2 yards per carry against Air Force, 287 yards rushing against Purdue on 7.2 yards per carry, 182 yards rushing against Pitt on 5.7 yards per carry—do we see a trend here?

That's 245 yards rushing per game over the last three weeks and it can all be traced back to a dominant offensive line.

If the Irish continue to run the ball effectively, they will be playing in a BCS Bowl come January.

4. Best Player on the Field Every Week

I don't know how you can say this about a guy who is averaging 9 catches per game for 106.5 yards, but Michael Floyd needs the ball more.

Although just his presence on the field alone has opposing defenses absolutely terrified to a point where Tyler Eifert is seemingly wide open on every play.  

It looks like even Theo Riddick has finally decided to start his 2011 football season as a result of all the attention being paid to the best wide receiver in Notre Dame football history.

As long as Michael Floyd is simply on the field, the Irish are at an advantage on offense—do you think Brian Kelly finally figured out why a certain someone needs to be staring down the opposing punter from now on?  

It's amazing to me that it took this long for Kelly to realize that Floyd needs to be the one returning punts this season.  It's called the Devin Hester effect—scare the punter into kicking it short or out of bounds, thus, creating optimal field position.

5. Payback from 2010

Notre Dame will beat Stanford this year, mark it down—you heard it here first.

For those of you who think Stanford is as good as they were last year, you are sorely mistaken.

Who is the best team Stanford has played so far this year?  With a schedule ranked 92nd in the country, it's hard to answer that question.

Notre Dame will enter the Stanford game battle tested, while Stanford will come in at either 11-0 or 10-1 based on the outcome of the Oregon game—their one and only tough game, which happens to be at home.

The Cardinal will be in for a rude awakening in their last game when they face a Notre Dame defense unlike anything they've seen all year.

10-2 folks, you can take it to the bank.