First and foremost, welcome to what I would consider the premier ND recruiting fan board. Secondly, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I remember when Charlie first came aboard and put up a BCS bowl game season and recruited his butt off (not literally, figuratively). I really want all of that to happen, however, I have gotten my hopes up too much with this team to think too far ahead. Great optimism though.
+1
This team made great strides this year. Many things are encouraging. CW left the team with a lot more depth then Ty did, so I don't expect a 2007 style fall-off during Kelly's first few years.
However, there are still more unknowns than knowns.
1)Our offense. One Robert Hughes drive does not a power running game make. We have an almost guaranteed QB controversy next year. We might need to replace Floyd at WR. Cierre Wood will be our featured back as opposed to the lightning to Hughes' or Allens' thunder. We lose, arguably, our best O-linemen (Stewart) and, possibly, our automatic kicker.
2) Our coaching staff. One of the biggest things that hurt Weis was continuous turmoil in his coaching staffs. Our D had to learn a new defense virtually every year, and never really mastered any of them. As we become more successful, our assistant coaches will become more attractive targets for schools with head-coaching vacancies. Kelly has worked with some guys for a long time now, will he be able to replace them if we do lose them?
3) Our recruits. I'm very excited about this class. There are some special players in there and a lot of very solid players that may by in to the program. But it's not the type of class that guarantees anything. A lot of 3 stars with a handful of 4 stars isn't bad by any means, but there's nobody in the class you can really point to as a guy who should ideally be an impact guy next year. Which is not to say that a player like Golson or Daniels or Tuit can't or won't play right away, just that the program is probably better off if they don't have to play right away.
