Player development was an intangible that, three years ago, gave Brian Kelly hope for success with Notre Dame‘s relatively uncultivated bumper crop of football recruits. While dealing from the bottom � or maybe even the middle � of the talent deck, Kelly found winning formulas at Grand Valley, Central Michigan and Cincinnati. It’s put-up time for the Irish. The talent pool’s deeper at Notre Dame. Sink or swim. Kelly and his staff get the chance to show off that knack for development. Quarterback, receiver and cornerback all are areas that will be scrutinized closely this fall. A lot to ask in a short period of time � with a brutal schedule as the gauge for progress. Notre Dame circa 2012 could actually be better than last year’s edition, but still end up with a worse record.

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Notre Dame just can’t seem to make the jump to the elite, and they won’t this year. The biggest problem has and will be there quarterback play. While I think Brian Kelly is the best coach they’ve had in the past few, I still don’t know what the issue is with taking the golden-domers to the next-level. This website has them going 7-5, and I’m thinking more like 6-6. BRUTAL schedule to ND’s credit though.