For those on the board actually saying ND
has to be better than last year because of X, Y, or Z, your theories are continually proven wrong by sports teams all over the country. We'll start with MLB...the Tigers were pretty much a lock before the season began to make the World Series based on last year's stats and what they added. Look where they're at now!
Looking at college football, one only need to look at our own
MSU teams to be reminded that another year of experience doesn't necessarily make you better. In 2002 we were a dark-horse BCS contender with Smoker, Rogers, Duckett, most of the defense returning etc. Look what happened there. The offensive line didn't improve and the defense was just as bad (I'm just looking at the beginning of the season when they really did lay an egg.) Our secondary was supposed to better in 2007 because they were all back from 2006 and they really didn't improve that much. There are a bunch of other examples of this.
Of course if you listen to Notre Dame fans now, they all say the fully expected last season to be a really bad one and weren't surprised. Funny because the defense was supposed to carry them last year and I think it was worse in 2007 than 2006.