Notre Dame Football: The Irish at the 3 Quarter Mark

The preseason mantra of "BCS or Bust!" has been packed away until next August, and banners proclaiming Notre Dame's triumphant return to college football's grandest stage have been left lying crumpled on the roadside as the 6-3 Irish look to end their season as they did a year ago with four straight wins.

Turnovers have been a problem all year, as have been silly penalties.

At times the team plays without much intensity, lapsing back to Weis era lethargic mushiness and allows themselves to be pushed around by inferior opponents.

And Notre Dame still can't return punts.

The good news is that is about the balance of the bad news.

After a disastrous 0-2 start Notre Dame has posted a 6-1 mark suffering only another turnover-plagued defeat at the hands of underdog USC.

Turnovers have improved, but are still a point of contention. The Irish still lead the free world in give-aways, committing 22. Considering that 10 of those came in the first two games, and 12 in the other seven, there has been marked improvement.

The biggest problem for Notre Dame is that those turnovers come at key moments, and have resulted directly in all three losses.

Only USC can claim that they have honestly out-played the Irish, as Notre Dame dominated the other two opponents who claimed victories.

In contrast, only the win over now 4-5 Pittsburgh could truly be considered "ugly" in that Notre Dame needed to survive its own mistakes in order to come back and win.

The biggest step forward that Notre Dame has taken this year has been in finally returning to dominating teams.

During the Weis era, seldom did the Irish pull away early and keep their opponent on the turf the entire game. It was common to see an over matched opponent come storming back late to make a game much closer than it should have been, or in the case of teams like Syracuse, Connecticut and Navy win outright.

This year when Notre Dame won, they won convincingly.

The Irish pounded Air Force and Navy by a combined  115-47 count, and obliterated Purdue on the road 38-14.

The Irish have also racked up a pair of quality wins on the year, with the most recent coming at Wake Forrest against a solid Demon Deacons unit.

The best win of the year was also the team's first, coming over No. 14 Michigan State in a game that Notre Dame dominated from start to finish.

On the season the Notre Dame defense has shaved more than 30 yards a game from its pass yardage allowed total, and more than 80 yards from its run average. With exception of the first quarter against USC and the last against Air Force, the Irish defensive unit has come as advertised.

What is more encouraging for Notre Dame is the execution of Brian Kelly's "Next Guy In" mentality, that even with injuries to Ethan Johnson at nose tackle and Capron Lewis-Moore at end the defense has remained consistent.

The secondary, while porous at times, has not allowed "the big play" and has been good enough to allow the Irish to remain in every game.

Offensively, the offensive line has been excellent allowing Irish backs Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray to each post solid numbers on the season.

Wood is quietly on pace to rack up more than 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns, while Gray has burst forth from the proverbial dog house to stand count 600 yards of his own along with nine scores.

Gray has been the offensive bright spot since the opening possession fumble against USF. He has carried the team to wins versus Pittsburgh and Wake Forrest and has ignited the offense with simply punishing runs all season.

The passing game continues to revolve around certain first-round pick Michael Floyd, who despite at least double coverage every game is again on pace to top 1,000 yards and 10 scores. Theo Riddick and T.J. Jones have yet to prove that they are superb route runners, but have each added 30 receptions and combine for six scores.

Tyler Eifert is without a doubt the most essential player on offense, being a strong run blocker as well as an ever open target at tight end. He ranks second on the team with 43 receptions totaling 506 yards and four scores.

The quarterback position has been the target of much debate, but has in many ways settled for the season. Tommy Rees will never be perfect, but he does enough to elevate beyond "game manager" status.

Rees has completed 65 percent of his throws for 2096 yards and 17 touchdowns. He also has proven to make solid pre-snap reads, often moving the offense around for better protection, or into a better play to exploit a weakness that the defense had shown.

Because of this read and recognition in moving protection along with a quick release, Rees has helped keep his jersey clean as he has only been sacked four times on the season, and has gone 189 pass attempts since last being sacked.

The obvious downside to the quarterbacks, Rees in particular are the turnovers. Rees himself has accounted for 13, which is more than the total of 50 percent of the other other FBS teams. Dayne Crist's two turnovers were each in their own way soul crushing.

Going forward Rees in particular has to improve upon this turnover ratio, which in and of itself greatly stabilized the quarterback position.

Andrew Hendrix has seen limited action as well, breaking an exciting 78 yard run against Air Force and connecting on four of five pass attempts in what may be a cameo appearance previewing what could be to come.

Looming on the Irish horizon are two seemingly easy contests with ACC bottom dwellers Maryland and Boston College.

Then comes the biggest challenge of the year when the Irish travel to Palo Alto to face powerful and highly ranked Stanford and their all-world quarterback Andrew Luck in his collegiate finale.

At the three-quarter mark, Notre Dame has proven resilient, overcoming emotional trauma and physical obstacles to earn bowl eligibility with three weeks to play, and a shot at ending another season with a huge exclamation point.

With much of the roster returning next year (unfortunately not Michael Floyd or Jonas Gray who are out of eligibility) and despite the early stumbles the Irish are poised to return to the upper reaches of the college game in 2012.