Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Upon Further Review A Crucial Eight Days By Todd D. Burlage Fair or not, the third season has become a standard report card in college football. “Defining Year” is the most popular headline for preseason publications around the country for a coach entering his third season. Impatience is the new norm. I’m sometimes accused of being overly critical of the Irish football program, while it struggles to regain its national footing since the Lou Holtz era 20-plus years ago. So as Irish head coach Brian Kelly enters his third season, it’s important to note his program is moving forward both in terms of improving roster depth with fine recruiting and thru building a dominating defense. Those are the two most critical priorities to finding consistent top-level success within any program. Seven of the 10 Bowl Championship Series teams from last year had defenses that ranked in the top 35, and five of those landed in the top 20 of the final rankings. Notre Dame finished No. 30. And the average recruiting ranking of those 10 BCS teams for their true junior and senior classes last year was No. 20. Notre Dame’s average for those 2009 and 2010 classes was 17.5. So the Irish are clearly on par with their BCS brethren in those two important areas. With early season tune-ups against Navy and Purdue behind, Notre Dame now has a great opportunity to help “define” Kelly’s third season with consecutive games against Michigan State and Michigan. More importantly, this is a chance to mark the true beginning of the Brian Kelly Era at Notre Dame after two steady but unspectacular eight-win seasons in his first two years here. A 1-3 start in 2010, followed by a 0‑2 start in 2011, sapped some early excitement out of both seasons and kept Kelly from establishing any September momentum or reaching his postseason priorities during his first two years on the job. These next two Saturdays against evenly matched opponents are a great chance to make some national noise against teams that were ranked in the top 15 to start the season. Beating these tough regional opponents in the next two weeks, and more routinely moving forward, is an important step for Notre Dame to achieve a BCS berth this season and next, and to getting into the four-team national championship tournament that starts in 2014. Since the BCS was adopted in 1998, Notre Dame is 5-9 against Michigan State and 5-7 against Michigan. No disrespect intended. These are just the facts against two rival programs Notre Dame has played consecutive games against every year since 2002. And clearly, a .385 winning percentage in 14 years against two comparable opponents won’t cut it. Until the Irish can survive both ends of this one-two Michigan punch, they will chase postseason dreams, instead of grabbing them. Notre Dame has beaten both Michigan State and Michigan in the same season only twice since 1993, the last time in 2004. Kelly, though, believes he and his staff prepared their team well enough through spring football, summer and training camp to handle the annual stretch of tough Big Ten teams during the early part of the schedule. When asked before the Purdue game to evaluate his team after the 40-point blowout of Navy, Kelly wisely looked forward, not back. “It will be a totally different evaluation when you go against Purdue and Michigan and Michigan State,” he said. “… [Our guys] are well prepared to make the transition.” Kelly’s plan was to spend more time in training camp — at least through the early portion — preparing for the more traditional opponents rather than concentrating solely on stopping the unique triple-option offense Navy runs. The coaching strategy was built more on common sense and experience than pure genius. But given that Notre Dame and Navy had never before played in a season opener, Kelly and his staff faced some critical decisions on how to budget and balance their practice time during training camp with such an unorthodox first opponent. Those broader preparations were designed to help Notre Dame get a head start on the varying styles it faces during this three-week membership in the Big Ten, a challenge that will be magnified the next two weeks. Michigan State features its traditional stifling defense and physical running game led by Heisman hopeful tailback Le’Veon Bell. Michigan, of course, has its own Heisman candidate with quarterback Denard Robinson, who has hit Notre Dame for 940 yards of total offense and eight touchdowns in the last two meetings. These are tough opponents that could establish Notre Dame as an early season BCS contender with a sweep. Given the difficult schedule this season and the direction of the Notre Dame program, the term “defining season” for Kelly is a stretch, but history brings the temptation to use the third year as a measuring stick for any Notre Dame coach. Former Irish coaches Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz all won national titles in their third seasons. On the flip side, six Notre Dame head men set a course for dismissal during year three, with Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis being the most recent. Year three is clearly not make or break for Kelly. But wins in these next two games could very well turn year three into a “defining season” after all … for all the right reasons. Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com