Notre Dame Football: The Painful Process of Transition

Like all members of our instant everything generation, I want it now. It, of course, is elite success by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. Granted, it has been 18 years since we contended for a national championship, so our impatience is understandable. It also probably doesn't help that the media blew up expectations for this year's team in the preseason.

Saturday's 15-12 win over Pittsburgh was as frustrating as any game I have ever watched. At times, the Irish looked terrible. Special teams hasn't been our strong point for a while, but the mistakes in that area continue to be mind-boggling. And I sure do hope head coach Brian Kelly knows what he's doing with Tommy Rees and the offense, because I sure as hell don't.

After all is said and done, though, Notre Dame is 2-2 after a murderous starting stretch with several winnable games looking forward. (This is not to say that Notre Dame couldn't lose a game like, for example, this weekend at Purdue.)

Sometimes I feel like I am watching a team that is the exact opposite of the Weis Era, which probably has something to do with why the transition is taking longer than most Domers want it to. They can at least hold on to the memory of Notre Dame's strong finish to last season, when they knocked off Utah, Army, USC, and beat Miami in a bowl game. Here are the major differences I am seeing on the field this year.

We have a pass rush. Oh, and we're not bad against the run, either. After 4 quality opponents, Notre Dame sits at the 25th best defense against the run in the country. Guess that means that the front 7 is doing a good job. Defensive ends Stephen Tuit and Aaron Lynch, combined with outside linebacker  Prince Shembo and nose tackle Louis Nix, creates a great defensive base for years to come. Middle linebacker Manti Te'ois a beast, and still has a season after this one, God-willing. (No pun intended.) Against Pitt, the Irish racked up six sacks. When is the last time, that happened?

And when quarterbacks are being rushed, suddenly Notre Dame's secondary looks a lot better. (Hopefully Michigan was an anomaly.)

We have an offensive running game. In four games this year, the Irish have out-rushed their opponents 3 out of 4 times. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'd put money on the table that that didn't happen very often in, say, 2009. And that's without a mobile quarterback. The only exception was against South Florida, a game in which Notre Dame played a team with a mobile quarterback and got out-rushed by 9 yards. Saturday's 79-yard run by backup running back Jonas Grayon Saturday was the longest run by a Notre Dame player in 11 years.

Our quarterback is far from Brady Quinn or Jimmy Clausen, and it will be that way for a while. It's a painful loss, but due more to a new system than, say, recruiting. (Last I checked, three of the four quarterbacks on Notre Dame's roster were blue chips.) This isn't to say that Notre Dame starter Tommy Rees could not turn out to be something like Tony Pike, a distant Heisman hopeful a few years ago during Cincinatti's 12-1 2009 campaign. (Although, for the record, I'm skeptical that Rees will ever be that good, but I'm trusting that head coach Brian Kelly sees something I don't). But the days of our NFL prototype QBs may be gone, at least while Kelly is the coach. Hopefully, a mobile quarterback will be in the mix sometime soon, but for now it may be that Kelly values smarts and leadership above all else. As much as I hate to admit it--and as much as I bang my head against various walls every time he turns it over--Rees is still 6-1 as a starter against some pretty damn good competition.

My best guess is that special teams are not yet a main priority. Call the kickoff return for a touchdown against Michigan State an exception. (Which is why we're not seeing a mostly sure-handed John Goodman trotting out there to fair catch punts.) Not sure what is up with kicker David Ruffer. This is not to say special teams will not become a priority in the near future, but I'm guessing the Brian Kelly regime wants to get offense and defense right first. Perhaps assistant coach Mike Elston should stick to the defensive line--where he is doing a good job--and give up the special teams to someone else.

So while the current Notre Dame team has plenty of holes, it is true that those holes are different ones than they have been in the past. Suddenly, the strengths look different, too. It is still too early to determine whether the results will change long-term. What we are witnessing is all the painful process of change.