UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

The defense was outstanding and with Mills, Cross, Botelho, Kiser and Watts all coming back, the young guys stepping in, outstanding play at CB and the third year with Golden (second in the simplified version used this year), we are going to be outstanding next year as well. Botelho played injured this year so getting him back healthy will be a huge plus. Should be championship quality next season for sure.

The deficiencies were on offense:
1. QB - Hartman lacked the physical attributes to be a difference maker. Not big, not tall, not fast and not used to/comfortable or all that proficient in a pro-style system. Leonard is all of those things.
2. WR - Losing Greathouse, Thomas and Colzie was absolutely devastating to an already thin room. Merriweather was a zero all season as was James. Flores did fine but was a freshman and not a #1 type of guy. Tyree did well in his first year playing WR but strictly a good WR and nothing more. We played with Merriweather, Flores and Tyree (an enigma, a true freshman and a converted RB) for large portions of the season. Next year we'll have a healthy Greathouse, Thomas, Faison (the three who played primarily yesterday) as well as Collins, Mitchell, a healthy Colzie and Cam Williams who I think will see the field early. So our WR room went from being a debilitating position to very good. The upgrade from Stuckey to Brown leading it will only accentuate the vast upgrade of the room.
3. OC - We went from a young, new and very simple OC last season who was basically holding the spot for a year to quite simply the best OC in the country that ND could have possibly gotten. Denbrock will be able to coach/instruct the position coaches to coach what he wants in every single position and his working with Brown and Guidugli has had years of proven success at a high level. No doubt we will have a very quality, well-run offense under Denbrock next season.

We were not championship quality last season. The defense was but the offense wasn't. Not with that QB, that WR room and that OC. We learned that relatively early in the season. I have very little doubt that given who's coming back and what we brought in (Obey and Clark), the defense will again be championship quality. I also now have very little doubt that with what we brought in on offense (Leonard, WR's) and who's running it (Denbrock, Guidugli, Brown, McCullough and Rudolph) our offense will be potent and championship quality as well.

So it is not so much a high off the beatdown of OSU, it is more a high of knowing how good we can and will be next season given the changes over the past month. We are going to be a very serious National Championship contender. The OSU beatdown isn't the cause of the high, it is just another positive thrown on top of the heap of positives we've experienced, got us to 10 wins and maintained the forward momentum.