Change We Can Believe In

With the arrival of Brian Kelly as new head coach at Notre Dame, it's a fresh start for Kelly, for Notre Dame, for its fan, but most importantly, for the players. With the depth chart swiped clean, here are five players that have the most to gain:

5. Harrison Smith - RS Sr. LB - 6'-2" 207

Smith started the 2009 season at safety, but ended at LB (or the bench) after his poor pass defense was quickly exposed. That being said, Smith remains one of ND's most talented and athletic players. The new defensive scheme gives Smith the opportunity to reinvent himself at a new position. I think the 3-4 allows Smith to move back to LB, and become the run stopping force for the Irish D.

4. Shaquelle Evans - So. WR - 6'-1" 203

While used sparingly throughout the 2009 season, Evans showed flashes of his capabilities. There's only room for growth regarding Evan's role in the new Irish offense. Furthermore, with Parris graduating, Tate entering the NFL Draft, and Floyd's status in jeopardy following his citation, Evans could be the #1 heading into spring ball.

3. Deon Walker - RS. Jr. WR - 6'-3" 193

Lost in the shuffle at WR since his arrival at ND, Walker has the most to gain regarding this 2nd chance. Walker's size and skills fit perfectly in Kelly's spread offense. Not to mention, the lack of depth at receiver means Walker has the perfect opportunity to start for the Irish in 2010.

2. Cierre Wood - RS So. RB - 6'-0" 218

Wood entered ND ready to play right away, but ended up red-shirting his freshman year, mostly due to the logjam at RB. Now, with the arrival of a new offense, especially a high-octane one, Wood has a chance to shine, as he possesses the flexibility to play multiple positions. I expect Wood to make an immediate impact in the return game.

1. Ethan Johnson - Jr. DE - 6'-4" 280

With the arrival of Diaco from Cincinnati, it looks as if the Irish will switch back to a 3-4. This means Johnson will move back to his original position. And seeing as how he is a beast, I expect him to make a lot of noise in the backfield of Irish opponents in 2010.

While there are many players I expect to make noise in the off-season, I expect these five to crack the starting line-ups by the time the 2010 season rolls around.

-DH

Assembling the Staff

Over the last few weeks, Brian Kelly has slowly completed his coaching staff. Here is the final rundown:

OFFENSE

Charley Molnar - Off. Coordinator/Quarterbacks
Tony Alford - Wide Receivers
Mike Denbrock - Tight Ends
Tim Hinton - Running Backs
Ed Warrinner - Offensive Line

DEFENSE

Bob Diaco - Def. Cordinator/Linebackers
Kerry Cooks - Linebackers
Mike Elston - Defensive Line
Chuck Martin - Defensive Backs

Paul Longo - Strength and Conditioning

A few items that jump out at me, is that there are no big name coaches. When Weis assembled his staff five years ago, many of those coaches arrived in South Bend with much fanfare and flashy resumes. However, when you examine these names, there is only one thing that stands out: winning. Most of these coaches have crossed paths with Kelly somewhere throughout their careers. That is what I'm excited about. These are RKGs when it comes to coaches as they are already familiar with Kelly's style, personality, and coaching philosophies. After all, Weis proved resumes don't mean anything.

-DH

The Sugar Bowl

I don't know how many of you watched the Sugar Bowl, but it was not pretty for the Kelly-less UC Bearcats. They couldn't move the ball while the gave was close and they didn't stop Tebow at any point. The game was a blowout from kickoff to when Tim Tebow thanked his lord and savior for the win.

But as good ND fans in our ND centric universe, we better analyze what this game means to the future of ND football. What should we take away from this terrible performance by Brian Kelly's boys?

Some will say that it means nothing. Lets face it, the cards were stacked against UC big time: (1) Kelly was gone (2) FL was playing with the most winning class of seniors in SEC history (3) Urban Meyer's health crisis sparked the FL team (4) 2 time Heisman winner playing in his final game (5) FL is a more talented team at nearly every position on the field.

But some may say that we can take some things away about Kelly ball.

First, Brian Kelly was really important to the functionality and success of Cincy's offense. Some thought that offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn had as much to do with UC's offensive success as Kelly. However, after the FL blowout and lack of offensive putout, it is obvious that Kelly's play calling was critical all season. Quinn looked like a deer in the headlights as he was smashed by the Urban Meyer game plan. Good luck at Buffalo Jeff.

What about the D? I'm not sure Kelly's presence would have made any difference. UC had been giving up a ton of points to much worse teams than FL. The UC defense was not talented enough and not coached well enough to have any chance against the Tebow Train.

Now on to the most important thing to take away:

ND may improve substantially under Kelly. ND may win 10-12 games every year with Kelly. However, this success may not even put ND on the radar to contend for a national championship against the powers that be in the SEC. Alabama tore FL to pieces, who in turn tore UC to pieces, a team who likely would have won at least 10 with this years ND schedule.

We have a long way to be competitive with the best of the Big East and Big 10, the large portion of our schedule. Kelly proved he could do that with a fairly untalented team. The point though is that even Kelly will have to take it up a notch to expect to contend for National titles.

I pray (even I can pray sometimes) that Kelly didn't just find an opportune time to be a coach in the midwest and east when the competition was down so as to make him look better than he really is. We need to remember that beating Big East teams, as Kelly has done, will not come close to meeting the expectation of the Notre Dame fans.

But lets hope I just over-analyzed this whole situation, because after all, Kelly didn't coach in a loss this whole season.

-CJI