After a 7-6 season full of ups and downs, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish look to find some consistancy in what can be best described as a make-or-break season for head coach Charlie Weis.

After a skin of the teeth victory in their season opener against a San Diego St. team that had just lost to FCS Cal Poly, it look like it was going to be another long year of the Blue and Gold.  But they rebounded with a solid showing against a sloppy Michigan team the next week, only to make some mental errors the next week in East Lansing.  After solid back-to-back showings against Purdue and Stanford, the Irish had a massive meltdown in the second half against UNC.  The Irish then had a good showing against a hapless Washington team, and then had another massive second half meltdown at home against Pitt.  The Irish clearly werent the same team after this, as they then proceeded to get dominated by BC, nearly lose to Navy for the second straight year, blow another halftime lead to a bad Syracuse team, then get absolutely blasted by USC for the 20th time this decade.  The Irish were then able to somewhat salvage their season, and possilby Charlie Weis' job with their nearly perfect showing in the Hawaii Bowl.

So heading into 2009 one can ask, which is the real Notre Dame?  The one that looked like an unstoppable offense against Hawaii, or the one that blew 3 second half leads and had ball control issues?  Well the smart bet seems to be on the former.  Its not like this is an untalented bunch of scrubs running out of the tunnel every weekend.  Four straight years Charlie Weis has had an outstand recruiting class.  He is now in a position where the whole team is his, there is no more of Ty Willingham left on the Notre Dame roster, no more of his sub-par recruiting efforts left on this team.

One of the big reasons Notre Dame went 7-6 last year was lack of strong senior leadership.  Obviously there were still some fine seniors on that team, David Bruton, Mo Crum, Pat Kuntz, to name a few, but that was essentially all they had.  There were 3 games last year where Notre Dame took a double digit lead into halftime, only to find a way to lose.  That is a side effect of having a young team, they can sometimes lose focus when things seem under control.  Is that a slight on the coaching staff? Possibly, but you can bet that the 2006 Fighting Irish, lead by seniors Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija, and Tom Zbikowski, would not have allowed that to happen.

So you can definately argue that Notre Dame has double-digit win talent on their team.  They should have won 10 last year, they should have no issues getting to 10 this year.  The schedule is very favorable this year, the Irish should be favored in every game except their game against USC.  But even in that case, USC breaks in a quarterback who has yet to make an appearence at a college-level game, as well as many new defensive starters, and the game is in South Bend, the place where the Irish last played USC tough in '05.  Troy's early season clash at Ohio St. should be a good barometer as to how this game plays out.  So essentially every game for Notre Dame is winnable.

On offense, ND returns their starters at quarterback, running back, tight end, both wide receivers, as well as the majority of their offensive line.  Junior QB Jimmy Clausen should continue to make strides to becoming a star, and his supporting cast will help him get there.  He has arguably the best WR tandem in college football in Golden Tate and Michael Floyd, and super sophomore TE Kyle Rudolph, as well as a plethora of talented running backs in Armando Allen, Robert Hughes, Jonas Gray and incoming freshman Cierre Wood.  The offensive line improved from allowing 58 sacks in 2007, to only 22 last year, although they still struggled in run blocking.  New line coach Frank Verducci looks to fix that.

On defense Jon Tenuta takes over playcalling responsibilities from Corwin Brown, and switches the main defensive package back to the 4-3 after running the 3-4 last year.  On the D-Line 2 starters return, at linebacker 2 starters return, and 1 (Harrison Smith) moves to the secondary, and in the secondary 3 starters return.  The secondary was this defenses strength last year, as they were top 15 in the nation in pass defense (in part due to their poor run defense), however there are some great athletes in the secondary.  Senior safety Kyle McCarthy is one of the premiere run-stopping safetys in the nation, and Harrison Smith has a bit of Tom Zbikowski in him.  At corner sophomore Robert Blanton had a fine first season on the field, and Raeshon McNeil finally got a chance to live up to expectations set for him when he entered the program.  The secondary will get an added boost now that Darrin Walls has rejoined the team.  

The front 7 should be much improved.  Former freshman all-american Ian Williams anchors the D-Line, and breakout sophomore Ethan Johnson is in line for a big year.  Keep an eye on redshirt freshman DE Kapron Lewis-Moore.  He has a big frame at 6-4 and is quick off the edge.  He should in time grown into a true pass-rusher that ND has lacked since Justin Tuck.  The linebacking core has the potential to be the most improved unit on this team.  Brian Smith has emerged as the leader on the defense, and there are a host of athletic sophomores (Steve Filer, Darius Fleming, Anthony McDonald and David Posluszney [sound familiar?]) who will be pushing hard for playing time.  And when you add freshman Zeke Motta and Manti Te'o to the mix, its shaping up to be a solid unit.

All in all, given the schedule and talent of this roster, Notre Dame should easily reach double-digit regular season wins in 2009, with a trip to the BCS.  However, do not be suprised if this team goes 11-1 or even 12-0.