I've realized that despite my generally pessimistic attitude on a week-to-week basis in regards to Notre Dame games, my outlook in the summer is generally pretty bright and cheerful.  The worst example was the progression through 2007, where I went from "This team is going to be really bad next year" following the departure of Brady Quinn and everyone else to talking myself into a pretty solid year by September.  That didn't exactly happen, so I've tried to be a bit more reserved.  Still, I can't help getting excited for this season, although I'm working on tempering those expectations.

But there are a lot of reasons for hope, my friends.  First and foremost is Brian Kelly, 34-6 at Cincinnati and undefeated last year.  He is simply a very successful college coach who has won at every stop throughout his career.  The staff he's put together seems smart, organized and ready to take on the challenge of rebuilding Notre Dame football.  If his success on the field in fall is comparable to his work elsewhere or how he's handled himself off the field as Irish coach, we're all in for a very good season. 

Thanks to the steadfast recruiting efforts of his predecessor, Kelly is stepping into a depth chart full of four and five-star talent.  While the Irish teams of the last few years didn't play like teams assembled out of top ten recruiting classes, they have that advanced pedigree.  Considering Kelly's system turned middle-tier recruits like Mardy Gilyard into stars, just imagine what he'll be able to do with guys like Mike Floyd and Kyle Rudolph.  There will obviously need to be a solid effort from the offensive line, but I'm comfortable that a team anchored by Trevor Robinson and Chris Stewart should at least give the skill players a chance to get up field.  Dayne Crist is a mega-talented but unproven starter at quarterback, but considering Kelly's track record at that position, I think there's limited reason to worry.

On defense, the maturation of a young front seven is complete, as guys thrown into the fire as freshmen have had time to gain experience and muscle over the last couple trying seasons.  With the departure of Kyle McCarthy the secondary could be in a little trouble, but again, there is talent to fill the gaps.  The linebacking corps, led by Manti Teo, has a chance to be positively lethal if Kelly's propensity for blitzing continues.  (I assume Kelly's blitzes will attempt to be effective, as opposed to the Tenuta blitzes that took delayed, looping routes to the quarterback and had no chance of success.)

 The schedule is tricky but manageable.  Starting with two games at home against not terrifying Big Ten opponents helps, but after Purdue and Michigan, things could get very ugly very quickly.  There are some soup cans (Army, Western Michigan) but a majority of the games fall under the category of "Very winnable, but certainly very losable as well," including basically all of September, the home games against Pitt and Utah and the trips to Troy and Chestnut Hill.  It's a schedule a good team would have no trouble reaching double digit wins against, but who knows if this version of the Fighting Irish is going to be good.

Problems facing the Irish?  They've won 16 games the last three seasons combined, and two of the main contributors to those wins are no longer with the team.  There is plenty of talent to replace Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate, but someone has to take the leap into their shoes.  People have to stay healthy and the inability to finish games late needs to be corrected.  The defense will be learning a new system out of a new base formation, but considering it seemed like they went most of last season without any sort of game plan, even a slightly muddled execution of a system should be more productive in comparison. 

The question for the upcoming season is not whether Brian Kelly can develop players, but how fast can he do it and how many bad habits exist from the previous regime that need to be corrected.  If you just looked at an Irish depth chart with star rankings, you'd assume the team had been at double digit wins each year, but that's not how football works and they were far from elite status.  Brian Kelly seems like an elite coach, and it seems like he's working with elite talent, but until the results are seen on the field, the track records of neither coach nor players matter.

Expectations for the season are mild compared to what you normally expect from Notre Dame fans, but a solid September will get them right back to where everyone is comfortable, happy and a hair delusional: hoping for, praying for and expecting championships.