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If you missed it, here are the bottom 5 of our top 10.

5: My Guys

After Notre Dame managed to look like their all-new "Home Field Advantage" had intimidated the hell out of them when Soutern Cal came to town, just about everyone remotely associated with Notre Dame Football was pretty well good and sick of one another. The fans were at one another's virtual throats on message boards near and far. We've heard there were at least 2 rather heated discussions among the coaching staff (and trust me, that's no longer an issue). And of course, during Brian Kelly's live radio show at a local South Bend establishment, leading up to the Navy game, Coach Kelly tried to answer a question about the the dynamic between the younger guys on the team and the more senior guys. And in spite of, or, perhaps because of, whatever effort Kelly did or did not make to tread lightly, he hurt some feelings.

And those poor little hurt feelings made sure to express themselves. Publicly. On Twitter.

Ultimately, if you really read what Kelly said (or hear it) within its context, it's not nearly as bad as many would believe. But if you only read about it from particular beat writers who work in Chicago, you probably got the impression that Kelly would sooner watch some of the older guys on the team take up vaudeville than keep them around.

Nevertheless, some poor little hurt feelings had to express themselves. Publicly. On Twitter.

And so by the time the pep rally for the Navy game rolled around, fans and media alike were wondering if Kelly could hold this team together, and apparently Kelly had to have a team meeting at some point, during which at some point poor little hurt feelings were salved.

Thank God for those poor little hurt feelings.

4: Decisions, Good and Bad

No matter Mike Floyd's decision to come back to Notre Dame for one more year (a great one), he made an incredibly stupid decision to get behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol on March 20th. Suddenly a lot of optimism about the ND Football program's chances in 2011 and Mike Floyd's long-term outlook were thrown for a loop. It cost Floyd practice time, as he was indefinitely suspended from the program and lost all of spring ball. Which, naturally, cost the entire team. It placed Kelly in the unenviable position of having to walk a fine line between publicly dealing with the mess in an appropriate matter that would keep both alums and critics from looking for their pitch forks. It meant Floyd had to spend the off-season going through a legal process and a process put in place by Coach Kelly. It meant the loss of a captaincy for Floyd. And, really, who knows what all of this distraction may have cost the team as a whole in the 2011 campaign?

But Kelly kept angry folks from becoming enraged. And Floyd managed to satisfy both the legal system, the Notre Dame disciplinary system, and Kelly well enough to return to the team in time for the start of the football season. As a result, with a 154 yard, 2 TD performance in the opener against USF, Floyd collected the title for most receptions in a single career at Notre Dame. Later, he'd set records for career receiving yards, 100 yard games, and most receptions in a single season by a Notre Dame player. And by the time Notre Dame met Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl, Floyd once again gained the title of captain.

3: Even Disney World Needs a Fresh Coat of Paint?

It was hinted at multiple times in the off-season by Kelly, Jack Swarbrick, and even some members of the equipment management team. But by the time the first night game at Notre Dame in decades rolled around (against USC), some body of people had created a plan to, if not revolutionize the "Note Dame Experience," certainly pushed that experience through several evolutionary steps at warp speed.

I'm pretty sure Darwin had some ideas of what happened when things evolved too quickly.

Certainly not everything was a failure. While the object of quite a few "clever" quips about their shine, the new standard for Notre Dame's helmets, created using something called a "Hydrographic printing process" rather than the old spray-paint, seem to be a resounding success among fans. And yes, they are mind-blowingly shiny.

But quite a few other steps seemed to (forgive me) hitch a ride on the Crazy Train and never get off. The piped-in music was met with disdain, by and large. The new player walk, while perfectly rational and sensible, set off quite a few alums who probably suffer from a mix of inability to be communicated to, and a lack of effort to properly communicate to them. The Addidas "designed" uniforms for the Maryland game set a new standard for "hype over form," as no apparent actual effort was put into "designing" a uniform that at least featured components that were coordinated with one another.

These attempts at freshening up the staid but popular "Notre Dame Experience" caused quite a tizzy, as more than a few, uh, "traditional" alums and fans saw the as steps toward more major "modernization" of the experience, like the installation of a Jumbotron or (gasp!) Field Turf. And while we couldn't be accused of being too traditional to see the arguments for either such upgrade to Notre Dame Stadium, we can certainly understand why a poorly coordinated effort towards modernization in 2011 did less to changes the hearts and minds of "traditionalists" and more to scare the high-waisted tartan pants off of them.

2: Crist Is Risen, Only To Be Sat Back Down

The old joke is supposed to be that the most popular player on any college football team is the backup quarterback. But most would agree that the joke is supposed to be about the popularity of that backup among fans of the team.

Although in retrospect, Rees' ascension into the starting spot over Crist was foretold by a lot of prophetic news items in the off-season. Sure, many felt that Kelly was simply paying lip-service to some ethereal notion of a "quarterback competition" as the season opener approached, but warning bells should have been ringing in every fans head when Kelly was apparently unable to pick a starting QB far in advance on when he finally did.

While Crist clearly possessed superior athletic ability to Rees, and also had that much beloved, though often poorly measured "it" about his personality, there were the small issues of Crist's tendency to injure knees or experience temporary blindness that probably counted against him. Worst still was his tendency to fail to manage the team before the snap - something Rees excels at, even if he does seem a bit confused after the snap. It's something Kelly clearly values. And if you read up on the writings of offensive and/or quarterbacking "gurus" you'll find it a common philosophy: The quarterback has no hope of executing the plays properly if they can't get the game pieces set up before they go in motion. Crist may have only gotten a few opportunities to show he could manage that aspect of the game in 2011, but he also showed he could do so very few times. And while his athletic ability may be superior to Rees', Kelly isn't the kind of coach who wants to depend on athletic ability to get his team out of jams caused by poor execution.

Understandably, many were and are frustrated with the output at the quarterback position at Notre Dame in 2011. While Rees may still have been able to set up the pieces of a play nicely, he never shook his tendency to turn the ball over at the worst possible times and/or in the red-zone. Perhaps that has something to do with Charley Molnar's departure to UMass. Perhaps not. I'm not one to speculate.

1: Take My Balls, Please

This will be hard for you to believe, but Notre Dame did not finish the season dead last in turnover margin. Somehow both SMU and East Carolina beat them to it. Still, Notre Dame commited an astounding 29 turnovers in 2011 while only managing to steal the ball away from the other guys 14 times. Consider for a moment that LSU only lost the ball 8 times to date, and Honeybadger and Co. stole the ball away 30 times. Major advantages in turnover margin wont make you a great team, but major disadvantages in this statistic will certainly hold you back. Rees was responsible for 14 interceptions alone (Crist with 1, Hendrix with 2).

An incredible 15 turnovers were committed by Notre Dame in September alone. And in their 5 losses, the Irish gave the other guy the ball 19 times and averaged a turnover margin of -2.6. A 2.6 Turnover deficit! Even though the Irish managed to steal the ball away a little more than 1 time per loss! Just astounding. Had the passing game, alone, managed to just cut the interceptions in losses by half (11 were committed), in all likelihood the Irish would be spending the first week of 2012 in a BCS bowl. But instead, Irish fans sit and watch the teams like Virginia Tech and Michigan in slap-fights upon BCS logos. In probably the first time in 10 seasons, had the Irish reached the BCS, they'd have likely not run into what is arguably the best team at that time. In other words, it's the most winnable set of non-Championship Game BCS contests in a long time, and Notre Dame missed it because of turnovers.

Clearly irked, Kelly made mention of the tendency of Notre Dame to cough up the ball, particularly by the quarterbacks, after just such sins cost the Irish the Champs Sports Bowl against Florida State. And interestingly - and I think tellingly - he placed responsibility for that bad habit on the coaches, mentioning that their's nothing wrong with how the players compete, but the coaches need to get better in order to see an elimination of the habit. Given the recent moves in shaking up the coaching staff, we expect the top story of 2011 to be the top theme in the spring of 2012.

Waka waka.

Subway was nice enough to ask that we host the 2011 Bowl Game edition of the Irish Blogger Gathering, and he must have caught us on a good day because we were nice enough to say yes. So I put together a set of questions. At first I'd aimed to use some good questions from my Twitter followers, but I'd actually harvested enough good questions there that I instead aimed to create a manageable set of questions that would serve as an amalgamation of what was asked on Twitter.

Our participants in this IBG include (in order of responses received):

• Subway Domer
• Poot - Yep, our Poot answered my questions, so I'll let him be the HLS rep for this round.
• Shamrock Head
• Let's Go Irish
• Gameday 40

Thanks to our participants for joining in the conversation. I'd imagine a few of them will post their full set of answers to each question soon, so go check them all out.

And away we go...

1) FSU might start as many as 4 freshman on the offensive line. In 40 words or fewer, describe what you're expecting to be the result of such a move.

Subway Domer - You know the hype around Aaron Lynch? Yeah... KABOOM!

Poot - Lots of pressure. I'd be disappointed if we didn't hassle Manuel all day. However, we need to be disciplined in our rush so he doesn't run all over us.

2) Lots of stuff Coach Kelly has been saying lately is getting people to believe that if Hendrix looks hot during the bowl game, he may just keep playing in the game. Give me 1 pro to that scenario and 1 con.

Pros

Poot - Adding dimension to the offense. Dynamic run threat could help slightly neutralize outstanding FSU pass Rush
Gameday 40 (Steve in IA) - BK finally breaks the binding on the playbook stretching the field vertically with Hendrix' arm strength and horizontally with his running ability. This is HUGE given the athleticism of the Seminole defense.


Cons

Subway Domer - If ND loses, Hendrix will of course be blamed as the reason- hence annoying the crap out of me.

3) If you've paid any attention at all, you know that the Champs Sports Bowl was officially a sell-out pretty darn quickly. Meanwhile Virginia Tech is struggling to get their allotment of tickets to the Sugar Bowl sold. Remember, the Champs Sports Bowl is a game between 2 very disappointed 8-4 programs longing for the glory days of yore. So explain how this bowl sold out, and try to leave all the rah-rah stuff out of it.

Let's Go Irish - Sorry, but the rah-rah stuff is a factor here. Notre Dame travels well, and their fans buy tickets, partly because of that rah-rah stuff. Florida State is obviously going to sell in Florida. It's a dream match-up for those promoters. What are you supposed to say -- Notre Dame fans are buying tickets because they want a reason to be near Mickey and Goofy?

Poot - FSU is already in Florida. Not a far trip to see your beloved team over Christmas break. ND fans will travel anywhere. Game being in Orlando allows people to sell it as family vacation. "We can even go to Disney with the kids!"

Gameday 40 (Steve in IA) - To explain this phenomenon, I give you the words of that most insightful interpreter of the human psyche, Don Draper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipghjA5xYD0&feature=related

As he charms the Kodak execs, Draper tells them (and us) "... in Greek, 'nostalgia' literally means 'the pain from an old wound'. It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.'" This is far beyond "rah-rah." It is that 'pain of an old wound'--and for the Irish faithful those wounds are manifold and spread over decades-- and this is what is driving the attendance figures. Those wounds are numerous and this game offers a chance at healing. The Champs Sports Bowl, pitting ND versus Florida State, is a potentially a sacramental experience for these fan-bases. And Irish fans more than anyone else should understand the power of sacrament. Don Draper certainly does.

4) Will there be an unexpected "hero of the game" for the Irish, or will such a hero prove useless, as the Irish blow out the Seminoles or the Seminoles take the game too far out of reach for the Irish for a hero to be effective? If there will be a hero, who will it be?

Shamrock Head - Hero of the game: George Atkinson III. Which wouldn't be entirely unexpected, I guess, because the man's got mad slick moves and everyone knows it. Even so, I hope he gets some touches outside of kickoff returns, because the kid's got promise. He is the FUTURE. And I hope he returns at least one kickoff for a TD, because given the paucity of our punt return unit, our special teams really needs some street cred.

Let's Go Irish - I would somehow hope that Golic exceeded all expectations - but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe Lynch causes a key fumble and recovers it. After all, it was FSU that told him he couldn't cut it at ND academically and recently tweeted about his 3.0 gpa.

5) You Play. To Win. The Game. Unless you don't. In which case You Play. To Prepare. For Next Year. Which would you prefer to see in this game? And yes, it's a binary choice. Pick one.

Subway Domer - If this is disguised as a Rees versus Hendrix question, it seems pretty transparent. You play to win this game, and I think that means a LOT of Andrew Hendrix. If that helps with next year, so be it. Also, a win in the bowl game only helps, it never hurts. There are some degrees to that, but it is generally true.

Shamrock Head - I don't care how much talk there is about the Rees/Hendrix switch-up; no coach worth his salt wants to go to a bowl game and lose. No coach trying to build a program wants such utter deflation of momentum going into the off-season. And no program desperately yearning for the glory days of yore wants to lose to another team yearning for the glory days of yore.

*****

Be sure to check in with the participating sites to see their full complement of questions. And we'd love it if you'd check in with your own thoughts about these questions in the comments.

10: Punt Returns? We don't need no stinking Punt Returns!

It seems like only yesterday that someone joked on one of the message boards that John Goodman would find a prominent role to play for Notre Dame by fielding punts. Perhaps that jokester had some inside-information that we didn't. It all started out normally, if not pleasantly enough. The Irish coaching staff had clearly tried to get expected play-maker Theo Riddick ready for the job of actually catching and returning punts, but in his 2011 debut for the job, he contributed to one of the most error-prone performances in Irish history, muffing a punt and turning the ball over to the USF Bulls in a game that the Irish never should have lost, and had no business winning after 5 costly turnovers. And really after that performance and a few other early-season gaffes, the Irish went into full safety mode with the punt returning, giving Goodman the nod to play the role of "Don't F This Up." Sure, the Irish played with the idea of Floyd returning punts on occasion, but for all intents and purposes, the Irish gave up on the punt return game entirely.

The Irish finished dead last nationally in punt returns, averaging .30 yards per rerturn - less than a foot. ND only attempted 10 actual, official returns in 12 games. Opting to fair-catch or let the ball roll to a stop on many, many other kicks. Interestingly, that number, 10, is not the lowest nationally, as 8 teams attempted 10 or fewer punt returns all year. But trust me, it's not a cohort you'd want. One of those teams is about to be coached by Bob Davie in 2012. And even teams that feature just 3, 4, or 5 more returns (30-50% more) are awful. For the Irish to improve in 2012, their actual average return may not need to improve all that drastically (there's a lot of debate over punt return yardage value to a point), but to fail to at least attempt more returns is a problem.

9: Te'o Isn't Calling It A Comeback Because He Never Left

Many Irish fans worried over whether or not Manti Te'o would return for the 2012 season before the 2011 season even began. Indeed, if Te'o lived up to the massive expectations so many Irish fans had for him, we're not sure he could have stayed in college, as he'd have been a shoe-in for the #1 overall pick in the 2012 draft, and would have been considered a lethal weapon in the college ranks. Still, Te'o finished #1 on the squad in total tackles and total sacks. And his total tackles were good enough to place him 27th nationally. He was also a finalist for nearly every award available to a collegiate linebacker and named to a multitude of All American lists. Still, the season also helped further develop a concern over Te'o's pass coverage capabilities, as more than a few of ND's opponents sought the mid-level passing routes as safety-valves throughout the season. But once it was official that Manti was investigating his NFL prospects, many considered his decision to go pro a fait accompli. Afterall, he'd just completed the sort of season personally in which an opposing head coach actually called him "unblockable."

So when Manti Te'o casually mentioned that he'd be coming back to Notre Dame for his senior year during an awards ceremony, the news ignited a mini-celebration among plugged-in fans before most "official" news channels could gain verification. In fact, Manti didn't meet with the media for a full week after he'd "announced" his decision.

Manti Te'o is an unusual mix of world-class football talent and personality that dances to its own drumbeat (in a good way, in this case) so in retrospect, perhaps it's not so surprising that he'd choose senior year moments over millions in the NFL. But his decision serves as a major enhancement to the Irish hopes for 2012.

8: Young Beasts are Still Beasts on the DL - And Still Young

Aaron Lynch, Stephon Tuitt, and the still young Louis Nix III. All three have provided more than just glimpses of potential during the 2011 campaign. Nix managed not only to wreak havoc in the center of the field for opposing offenses, but also managed to tally 42 tackles, good for 8th on the team. Lynch, strung together 3 games (MSU, Pitt, Purdue) in which he recorded a sack. And Tuitt managed 23 of his 27 total tackles on the season in just 4 contests from the first week of October to the first week of November. Still, Tuitt and Lynch have growing to do. Lynch managed 1 tackle and 1 personal foul against Southern Cal. Tuitt and his coaches have both spoken of a need to build consistency in his play. And even the more senior Nix is looking to grow both as a better practice player and as an off-season warrior, as he looks to make his production "skyrocket" in 2012.

Look for these 3 players to "set the table" for 2012 with their performances in the Champs Sports Bowl, as they're likely to face 4 true freshmen on the Florida State offensive line.

7: We All Stand Along the Watchtower, Wondering Where Hendrix Went

15 of 29 for 1 TD, 1 INT, and 225 yards, plus 21 Rushes for 136 Yards and another TD. Not a bad outing, but in Quarterback Andrew Hendrix's case, that was all over the course of 4 total games played in 2011. And as Crist planned his transfer on the sidelines and Rees never really seemed to shake the turnover blues, more and more momentum was gained for the 2011 Most Popular Player On The Team: The Backup QB. Andrew's first appearance came against Air Force at the midpoint of the season, when he rushed for 111 yards on 6 carries, including a hilarious 78 yard rumble in which he failed to score simply because he ran out of gas. That seemed to set the table for a "1-2 punch" approach to the QB position the next week against Southern Cal, but as we all know, that game didn't go as planned for anyone. It was just one big, endless ride on the Crazy Train.

And then, like that... he's gone. That is, aside for 1 play against Maryland, Hendrix disappeared from the action between Southern Cal and Stanford. And many an Irish fan wondered what the heck happened to the guy with the cannon arm and the athletic ability so vastly superior to Rees' that it made the really silly among us pose questions of comparison between Hendrix and Tebow.

But if you read really carefully between the lines of things said since that Southern Cal game in which Hendrix clearly provided a "spark" to the Irish offense but also couldn't deal with a corner blitz and completed only 45% of his passes, you might start to see a lot of clues about "cohesion" between him and the rest of the starting offense, Hendrix's own practice-time performance, and adjustments to "the plan" that Kelly and Co. had to make in response to various injuries at other positions.

6: Oh, So That's What "Beast Mode" Means

He wasn't our "best" running back, statistically, but yeah, he was our best running back in 2011. Jonas Gray seemed to emerge from the Robert Hughes School of Late Bloomers but on the accelerated schedule, bursting onto the scene with a 79 yard TD run against Pitt in which he did the seemingly impossible: Turn an otherwise mundane running play into a highlight while outrunning everyone AND wearing an Irish uniform after the mid-1990s.

Still, it took a bit of time for Jonas to catch on as a consistent part of the Irish attack. In that same Pitt game, he only carried the ball 2 other times aside from the 79 yarder. And in the following 4 games he touched the ball just 38 times. Just as he caught on as a primary focus in the Irish offense, carrying the ball 40 times in 2 games, he finished his Notre Dame career with 11 carries, 61 yards, and 1 TD against Boston College before blowing out his knee. Over his career, Jonas averaged 5.8 yards per carry for a total of 1100 yards. And for at least one full off-season, many an Irish fan will wonder why on earth this kid didn't arrive until just before he left.

****

So that's our 10th-6th top stories of Notre Dame Football 2011. Soon we'll release our top 5 stories of the year, but for now, we'd be curious to hear what you think are the top 10 stories and whether or not you agree with our rankings thus far.

We're very late to this, and that's probably good because it would have ruined our weekend. But HT to Orson over at SBN all the same.

We do, however, have this lovely set of questions and answers:

So, growing up, did you always want to be a bowl game? Or were you thinking something more like a Farm Aid or a Monster Truck Rally?

We started as an annual Thanksgiving pickup game between two families. First they got a trophy, then they started making special t-shirts. It was kind of a big deal. Then one year the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl came along and kicked us off the practice field. “Get out of here,” they said. “you couldn’t even be a pre-Christmas bowl game.” So we became a postseason contest on a mission. We plied our trade on the small circuits, first as a Pop Warner Championship game, then an Arena Football League playoff game. Then in 2001, we got the call to be the revived Tangerine Bowl (a.k.a. El Hijo de Tangerine Bowl or Tangerine Bowl, Jr.).

We've heard great things about the swag that players in a Champs Sports Bowl game receive. Did you use that to convince certain other bowls to take certain other teams in order to get this ND/FSU match up?

We are bowl enough to admit that there’s probably nothing we can offer with the same bargaining power as a Spicy Chicken Sandwich and waffle fries. If that doesn’t convince you that everything happened above-board, we don’t know what will.

What piece of swag will be the favorite of players this year?

We give them a $420 gift card to Best Buy, so what do the kids like at the Best Buy? Dyson vacuum cleaners? Pre-owned copies of Adele CDs? Those little cords that have the headphone jack on both ends so you can plug it in to your car stereo?

As an unbiased authority, go ahead and settle this debate between us and FSU fans: It's completely ridiculous that Florida State was given the national title in 1993 after we beat them, right?

The ridiculous part is how close we came that season to having a #1 vs. #2 rematch for the national championship! Who wants to see tha-“That’s an interesting question, [insert name of media member]. It’s yet another example of how Every Game Counts™ in college football’s regular season. We’re happy that the bowl system will reward players and fans with a trip to [insert the name of your city] this December.”

So, Orlando, eh? Anything to do there when football fans aren't attending your game?

Heck yeah, we’ve got the pantsless mouse, we’ve got the wizard kid, we’ve got like 38 mini golf courses and at least one Five Guys. What else do you need?

What's a bowl game like you do during down-time?

We watch a lot of sports: regular season basketball, regular season hockey, regular season baseball, you know, the important stuff…We play a lot of NCAA Football, simulating each season (game by game, because Every Game Counts™) and then practicing how we would talk to media about our matchup options. We’re trying to start up an improv troupe called The Incredi-Bowls but nobody is responding to our Evite.

You've got a very popular twitter account (@ChampsSportsBwl). Has that caused any of the other bowls to get jealous? Have you had to block any?

We’re still only, like, number seven among bowls on Twitter. Even our big brother @CapitalOneBowl has more people. We’re kinda like the weird, artsy, hipster bowl who makes snarky comments and references pop culture too much. No one ever gets jealous of that type of person. Even if we make it to number one, we’d be all “we showed you!” and everyone else would be like “who is the Champs Bowl?”

50 years from now, when we're all driving flying cars and walking around with the latest iBrains in our heads, what will the bowl game scene look like? Where do you hope to be?

In the long term: The postseason landscape is a dangerous wasteland. The Harris Poll and the Sagarin Ratings have banded together to control everything. There’s always an undisputed champion, but the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves to survive amongst marauding gangs of All-Star Games. The less fortunate are caught and thrown into Orrin Hatch’s Thunderdome in a single-elimination fight to the death. With a handful of Best Buy gift cards and the yellowing scraps of our 501(c)3 non-profit paperwork, we soldier on, living by the only code we know: choose the best team available or a team within one win. Come with us if you want to live.

In the short term: we look forward to the day when we can trot out the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl to introduce us at our Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

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Thanks very much to the Champs Sports Bowl for answering our questions! And be sure to follow the bowl on Twitter for all your parking info, ticket info, game detail, and humor needs!

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