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Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis needs a faster defense, and top-notch recruiting classes if the Irish are to challenge for a national championship, writes Allen Pinkett of MSNBC.com.

Vying for the best 
It's no coincidence that the teams which consistently stay among the elite in college football are those that have the most success recruiting year in and year out.

Notre Dame has to not only enter the tough-fought battles for blue-chip high school players, it has to start winning its share of these battles. Weis knows that, and he's striving to make Notre Dame hard to beat when it comes to landing the prep elite.

For Weis to fulfill the dream of Irish fans for a national championship, he needs to come away with one great recruiting class after another. That's what's happening at powerhouses like USC, and that's why the Trojans stay at or near the top -- because they are never strapped for talent, speed, or muscle.

It's clear to me that under Weis Notre Dame is making strides in recruiting. Weis is showing he is not afraid to compete hard for the top high school players. He is not conceding them to anyone.

Last year Weis almost had his recruiting complete before November turned to December. This year a change as he is willing to wait on some of the elite prospects who want to take all their visits, and take their time in deciding on a college.

After the loss to USC on Thanksgiving weekend, Weis did not fly back to Notre Dame with the team. Instead, he criss-crossed the country making recruiting visits, and making sure the Irish were still in play for some of the nation's top prep stars.

The NCAA’s mandated dead period pushed him off the road in the middle of December, but he'll be back on it now that the Sugar Bowl is in the books. Expect Weis to keep pitching Notre Dame all the way up until national signing day on Feb. 7.

He has a great story to tell about what it's like to play football at Notre Dame. He's telling it, and more and more blue chippers are not only listening to it, they're signing on to experience it.

Weis brought in a tremendous group of freshmen this year, and now he needs to follow that by finishing out this recruiting cycle with quantity and quality so Notre Dame comes away with another top class.

No rushing progress
With so many new faces in prominent roles next season, it will be 2008 before we can begin to gauge Notre Dame's progress towards its goal of rising to the elite level in college football.

Unlike this season, 2007 won't have attached to it the high expectations that Notre Dame fell short of meeting in 2006. The Irish will get considerably younger, and that will have its share of ups and downs. They'll be both exciting potential and agonizing inexperience on display.

Those new to key roles will need at least one full season of experience before they are at the point where they know the defense and offense well enough for the Irish coaches to be confident these players can go out and make plays on a consistent basis.

So Irish fans should not be dismayed by what takes place in 2007 because realistically it is not until at least 2008 that many of the Notre Dame players of last year's and this year's recruiting classes should begin to blossom.

Notre Dame fans should realize they have a bit of a wait on their hands before they can place the kind of expectations on the Irish that they did this year.

But they shouldn't mind the wait because once it's over they get to see if Weis and company prove to be more than competitive -- they get to see if the Irish are good enough to play for and win it all. And to Irish fans that would be a dream come true.

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