Notre Dame Football: A Postseason Evaluation of the Fighting Irish

Frustrating, exciting, thrilling, disappointing. Each of those adjectives describes the journey through the regular season for Notre Dame's football program.

One calendar year following a 7-5 regular season, year two of the Brian Kelly era only saw a one-game improvement to a regular season record of 8-4. Yes, it's an improvement and a winning record, but it's still a disappointment, considering preseason expectations.

The Irish were selected to qualify for a BCS bowl game by a slew of preseason publications, such as Phil Steele and Athlon Sports. Even Kelly himself declared that his team's ultimate destination was the BCS.

Unfortunately for those media entities, and Brian Kelly, the Irish made them look silly. Heck, you could have said that following the season's first 30 minutes of action against the South Florida Bulls.

So where exactly does Brian Kelly's program stand after the completion of his second regular season?

The answer to that question is a convoluted one. There are many areas in which the team has improved, but a few in which it continues to languish.

Let's start with the improvements. The first area that comes to mind is the play of the defense. It started last season, during the team's four-game winning streak, and carried over into 2011. It wouldn't have been possible without the astounding play of freshmen defensive ends Aaron Lynch and Stephon Tuitt.

Lynch and Tuitt, considered 5-star prospects by a majority of recruiting services, have brought another dimension to the Irish defense. Lynch's terrifying speed coming off the edge has given nightmares to nearly every offensive coordinator of Notre Dame opponents.

The same can be said about Tuitt. The 6'7", 295-pound product from Monroe, Georgia has been a stalwart on the defensive line all season, and has been a utility man of sorts, filling in at both end and tackle.

Those two phenoms, along with the veteran leadership of Harrison Smith and Manti Te'o, have been the foundation of a vastly improved Notre Dame defense.

The other side of the football has been somewhat of a different story. Brian Kelly's offense has shown flashes of brilliance, but has also been stagnant at times.

While Kelly's decision to stick with Tommy Rees at quarterback (which I criticized in an article published earlier this week) may not have been the best choice, you have to give the man some credit for finding a way for the offense to produce. The Irish offense eclipsed the 500-yard mark five times on the season. 

However, a different quarterback, perhaps Andrew Hendrix, needs to be named the starter for the offense to reach its potential.

Aside from the play of the team itself, the most frustrating aspect of the season boiled down to intangibles.

In Notre Dame's biggest games this season (Michigan, USC, Stanford) the mental toughness and poise of the team seemed to disappear. It remains to be the one area that must be solved in order for Kelly's program to reach its BCS dreams.

Taking a step back and looking at the program from the big picture point of view, one would see a team that is heading in the right direction. The pace at which that improvement is arriving certainly isn't fast enough for the Irish faithful, but it's arriving, nonetheless.

Irish fans will be rewarded if they're patient. Remember what Jim Harbaugh was able to do at Stanford, a very similar institution to Notre Dame.

Until 2012, Notre Dame nation.