41. The Notre Dame Squabbling Irish

Rivals says: Michigan (haha, right....)

I say......

41. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Lets face it, the Irish are not the program they once were. The days of "top ten until proven otherwise" are gone. Now it will be top ten only if you are at least 7-2, because anything else is liable to end up as 6-6 by seasons end anyway. A new era has started in South Bend, a they have taken to a new strategy, namely stealing a coach who has turned a unkown program into a perennial BCSer, and bringing him to a team in turmoil asssuming he will have to suceed. You know like Michigan did with Rich Rodriguez, oh, um.... never mind. Well regardless of the results, Charlie Weis is gone, and Notre Dame games will be watched without constant commentary about whether or not the coach has to win this one to save his job or not. For the first time in a few years, the focus of Notre Dame games may actually be the games themselves, something that has to help the team feel a little better if nothing else. Brian Kelly also spent his time at Cincinnati doing something that Notre Dame has been needing: winning shootouts by seven points or less, something the Irish generally find themselves losing at. Lets face it, if Kelly's Notre Dame performs like Kelly's Cincinnati, the Irish could be hunting for a BCS game again.

But they won't.

The Irish will be breaking in replacements for superstars Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate on offense, without whom, scoring in the thirties every Saturday is a goal a bit too lofty for this squad. Kelly will have to rely on the defense a bit more than Weis or himself have done in the past. Luckily for him, this is South Bend and there is never a shortage of talent to work with.

The Irish's problems, however, are not tied exclusively to excessive drinking issues. Yes, a drunk recruit killed himself this offseason and classless as it may seem, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to make a drunken Irishman joke. The big problem comes in the form of culture change. With most teams, when there is a drastic, well-publicized change at the top of the totem pole, the program takes a year or two to adapt. The chaos in South Bend over the last few years leads me to believe this will be one of those scenarios. The Irish will be more talented than just about everyone they face, as usual, but talent alone does not win games. The Irish need to learn how to play as the team Brian Kelly wants them to be and that will take time.

The schedule is difficult to judge because there is such a variety of talent in it. The only real bad teams on the schedule are Army and Western Michigan, there are some games that look pretty tough like (Stanford, Pittsburgh, Utah), some games that against teams that are average and unpredictable (Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Boston College), and games against small name teams that could be really dangerous (Tulsa, Navy). Overall, there are no games on the schedule that you would look at and say "Dame can't take em.'" However, there aren't many game you can look at and say "That's an easy win," either. There are only two teams on the schedule in my top 25, but only three outside of my top fifty. The schedule is as average as Notre Dame itself.

Overall, this season could go anywhere from 10 to 3 wins depending on how well the squad adjusts to Kelly's schemes. But overall I fgure the team should be less this.....
And a bit more this.

Although the true nightmare would be just looking like Charlie Weis again. I think the Irish will make it back to a bowl this year, but I would not put money on it.