Notre Dame Football: How Much Hope Does the 2012 Recruiting Class Offer?

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has taken a lot of heat for his team’s performance this season, and even Kelly will tell you that there’s no reason the Irish should be 5-3 right now with the type of talent they possess.

Kelly has started to lose the backing of some of the Notre Dame faithful, and after his team’s lackluster start, some have even come out and questioned whether he is really the right man for the job or not.

Even though the Irish haven’t been handling their business on the field, you do have to give credit to Kelly and his staff for taking care of business on the recruiting trail.

After pulling in a Top-10 class this past February, Notre Dame’s 2012 recruiting class is shaping up to be another monster catch.

Kelly has already pulled in 15 verbal commitments from prospects around the country and all three major recruiting services—Rivals, Scout and ESPN—have Notre Dame’s current class ranked as one of the Top 20 in the country (Scout-10, ESPN-11 and Rivals-16).

We’ve already started to see a few of last year’s top prospects like DE Aaron Lynch and RB George Atkinson make an immediate impact as freshmen, and it’s likely that next year’s incoming recruits will have the chance to make even more noise, since Notre Dame is set to lose some key figures off of this year’s squad.

The Irish are set to lose three important members of their secondary—cornerbacks Robert Blanton and Gary Gray and safety Harrison Smith, which should open the door for young standouts like Ronald Darby and Tee Shepard to make their presence felt early.

Darby and Shepard are considered two of the top cornerback recruits in the country and they both have the talent to play right away.

On offense, it should be interesting to see how quickly four-star standout receiver Deontay Greenberry gets into the fold.

With star senior Michael Floyd gone, there will be some holes to fill in the receiver corps, and while Theo Riddick is expected to step up and become the No. 1 option, there will definitely be room for Greenberry to get some early playing time.

The Irish are also building quite a defensive line through recruiting, and after bringing in a few big names like Aaron Lynch and Stephon Tuitt this year, they’ve managed to reel in commitments from two of the top defensive tackles of the 2012 class—Jarron Jones out of New York and Sheldon Day from down the road in Indianapolis.

After losing key leaders like Floyd, Smith and possibly linebacker Manti Te’o, Notre Dame will need some of its talented youngsters to step up next season if the Irish have any hope of being a top-ranked team, and it will be interesting to see how both this year’s freshman and next year’s top incoming recruits perform.

Kelly is certainly bringing in the talent, and soon enough he'll be playing with "his guys."

He's just got to make the most out of those big-name recruits, something his predecessor Charlie Weis couldn't do, and get his players to play up to their potential on a consistent basis.