Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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of heading to the NFL. Golson and Tuitt are the proverbial aircraft carriers on offense and defense, respectively, and can elevate everyone else on the current unit. Their coming back doesn't guarantee another 12-0 regular-season finish and a College Football Playoff berth, but it probably would at least legitimately place Notre Dame in the top10 conversation. A team cannot subtract two players the caliber of Louis Nix III and Tuitt along the defensive line and not feel its impact. Even losing Tuitt for the final two and a half quarters of this year's Pitt game for an extremely questionable "targeting" call had major repercussions in the Irish defeat, and hopefully did not provide a preview of 2014 without him. Go through Notre Dame's history of its greatest teams — the 1940s, 196480, 1988-93 and even 2012 — and one of the three most common threads is a dominant All-American/first-round NFL Draft caliber player (or two, or three) along the defensive front. Upon his arrival, Kelly said that's where it has to begin. Defensive linemen of Tuitt's caliber have not come along often at Notre Dame the past 20 years. Another season with him would be the most important Irish recruiting coup of 2014. Under Kelly, Notre Dame has batted .800 (4 of 5) when it comes to top prospects not turning pro after their junior year. The one miss was Kyle Rudolph in 2011, but the four returnees were receiver Michael Floyd in 2011, Te'o and Eifert in 2012 and nose guard Nix in 2013. Tuitt has until Jan. 15 to make his decision. 3. LINEBACKER AND QUARTERBACK COACHING There is much attention about who will assume the titles of offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator at Notre Dame now that Chuck Martin and Bob Diaco have accepted head coaching posts at Miami (Ohio) and Connecticut, respectively. This is still Kelly's team, and this probably is not going to be about someone coming in and completely changing the blueprint of everything. Promotions could very well come from within to maintain continuity. Far more pertinent are the titles "linebacker coach" and "quarterback coach" that Diaco and Martin also vacated. Perhaps more than any other two positions on the team, those areas will be replete with rust or inexperience. Three of the four starting linebackers from 2013 — Prince Shembo on the outside and Dan Fox and Carlo Calabrese inside — graduate, so teaching will be at a premium with the new faces, other than elite freshman Jaylon Smith. No single position might be shorter on proven and veteran bodies than inside linebacker, which signed only one scholarship player in 2010 (Kendall Moore), one in 2011 (a recovering Jarrett Grace), none in 2012 and one in 2013 (Michael Deeb). That leaves a small margin of error. At quarterback, Golson has to recalibrate after sitting out a year, and the