IrishSoonerGators

As I was watching the BCS National Championship last night, I noticed not only that national championships are way more entertaining when Ohio State isn't playing in them, but that Notre Dame may be heading in the right direction.
What!? After a 3-9 season followed by a disappointing 7-6 campaign, how can you possibly compare the Irish to the best teams in college football? You might ask... Here are a few things I noticed while watching the game:

• The turn-and-look offense: I found it interesting that both teams looked to the sideline before snapping the ball to determine whether they should audible from their current play, but I wondered if a matured Jimmy Clausen would be capable of making these reads himself next year. An offense adjusted at the line Peyton Manning style should help the Irish keep up the tempo while exposing weaknesses in the defense.
• Both teams could hit: The first half of this game was filled with more bell-ringers than I could count. The defenses made sure that if they were going to give up yards, they weren't going to do it easily. Here I look back to players like Tommy Z, Abiramiri, and Cory Mays, who all could lay wood at Notre Dame. Now we should see players like Sergio Brown, Kerry Neal, and Brian Smith stepping up. With the defense so young, we have the potential to grow some real hitters by next year if...
• Both teams had great strength programs: Percy Harvin is fast. Real fast. But he also benches 405, and OU's Chris Brown ran like lightning while being ripped like the Adonis (and he's the second string RB). This is one area where I think Notre Dame has trailed off recently. It may just be that all the players are so young, but I think Mendoza's lifting program has not been as affective as some of the top tier programs. With the coaching overhaul being revealed in the coming months, this will be one spot that I pay close attention to.
• Notre Dame is targeting the right players: In one of the earliest editions of the Irish Blogger Gathering, Frank at UHND asked us to pick 1 recruit that we wished ND landed in each of the last three seasons, and my three were Gerald McCoy, Carlos Dunlap, and Omar Hunter. As a redshirt sophomore, McCoy was an All-American defensive tackle that was an absolute force last night, registering an interception in addition to his slew of tackles. Dunlap starts on Florida's nasty defensive line as a sophomore along with fellow almost-Irish-sophomore Justin Trattou, and if not for injury, we may also have seen Omar Hunter at the defensive tackle position for Florida last night. Bottom line: Notre Dame is targeting talent that is starting and contributing on national championship caliber teams. This should comfort those that worry recruiting rankings don't mean that much.
• Playmakers make plays: One difference that I thought put Florida on top at the end of the night was the play of Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin (duh). Great teams have very good players at every position, but the best teams have 1 or 2 of those X-factor guys that can put the team on their shoulders and win the close games. I definitely see Tate and Floyd starting to fit this mold; there were multiple games where the team had given up but Golden kept laying his heart out on the field, and while Floyd is only a freshman, I see him moving in that direction also.
  

True, we might be more than a year off from competing on the level of Florida and Oklahoma, but keep in mind that we may not be too far off from turning a corner.