As Notre Dame begins the 2015 football season with its opener tonight in South Bend, there is one thing for sure. The Irish have the talent to make a run for the national title.

ND returns 18 starters this season and the strong suit for the Irish will be its defense, something that faltered badly in the second half of last season which resulted in ND losing four games in a row. Head coach Brian Kelly heads into his sixth season at the helm, and it better be a good one. Except for the title run in 2012, Kelly's record his not that impressive.On offense, there is plenty of talent but ND heads into the season with a new starting quarterback. Malik Zaire takes over as the ND signal-caller after a solid performance in the bowl game against LSU. Everett Golson, who was vying for the job in the spring drills as a graduate student, and the starter last year, decided to use his final year of eligibility at Florida State. Many believe he left because he knew that he would start the season as backup to Zaire and his playing time would be limited, especially if Zaire develops into the type of QB Kelly expects. Golson apparently made the right move, he was named starting QB for Florida State earlier this week.Here is a brief look at the 2015 Irish.On the offensive side everything will start with Zaire. It is on his shoulders to make the offense go. Backing up Zaire are DeShone Kizer, a sophomore, and Brandon Wimbush, a freshmen. I'm sure Kelly is holding his breath that Zaire doesn't get hurt this season.Tarean Folston returns as the top running back and his stats from last year make him a key this year. C.J. Prosise was a valuable slot receiver last year but with Greg Bryant gone for academic reasons, he is being looked at as a backup to Folston. Converted receiver Justin Brent and freshmen Josh Adams and Dexter Williams round out the depth chart.The receiving corps are about the best ND has had in a long time led by Will Fuller at one outside receiver spot and Chris Brown and Corey Robinson competing for the starting spot at the other. A player catching a lot of attention so far this fall is Tori Hunter. Hunter has missed much time since his arrival in South Bend due to a leg injury, but he is healthy and appears a very versatile receiver. The starting tight end is Durham Smythe, a junior.The offensive line is big and experienced. Left tackle will be senior Ronnie Stanley, 6-6 and 315; left guard sophomore Quenton Nelson, 6-5 and 325; right guard, junior Steve Elmer, 6-6 and 315, right tackle junior Mike McGlinchey, 6-8 and 310; and center, Nick Martin, a graduate student at 6-5 and 301.Lets flip to the defense. The defensive line has talent and experience. Defensive end Romeo Okwara, 6-4 and 260 senior; defensive tackle, Sheldon Day, 6-2 and 285 senior; nose guard, starter Jarron Jones is out for the season due to a MCL tear in his right knee earlier in the fall drills, will be replaced by Daniel Cage, a 6-1 and 315 sophomore. He has really come on in practice since Jones went down; the defensive end on the other side is Isaac Rochell, 6-4 and 287 junior.Linebackers to watch are James Onwualu, 6-1 and 220 junior, on stongside; Joe Schmidt, 6-1 and 235 graduate student in the middle, and Jaylon Smith, 6-3 and 235 junior on the weak side.In the secondary it will be Elijah Shumate, 6-0, 212 senior at strong safety, and Max Redfield, 6-1 and 198 junior at free safety. The cornerbacks, left side, KeiVarae Russell, senior at 5-11 and 190 returns from a year suspension and is a key returnee. On th right is Cole Luke, 5-11 and 190 junior.Reports say freshman kicker Justin Yoon, 5-11 and 185, is everything he was promoted to be. In the first week of practice he kicked 18 straight field goals successfully, four from 40 plus yards out. He will handle kickoffs too. Punter is Tyler Newsome, a sophomore at 6-3 and 205.ND will be hosting Texas with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff and nationally televised by NBC.Texas was 6-7 last year under first-year coach Charlie Strong. Strong is a former assistant coach at ND.ND leads the series, 8-2. The last time the two teams met was 1996 with ND on top, 27-24.IRISH NOTES ... The return of Schmidt is the real key for the Irish. When he got hurt mid-season last year the Irish defense began to go down hill from there, which led to the losing streak at the end. Schmidt is also the life-blood of the defense and a true team leader …. Two freshmen receivers have been pushing the veterans so far. They are C.J. Sanders and Equanimeous St. Brown….As you might have read, ND has agreed to let the pay network Showtime make a documentary of the Irish, following the team around at practice, games and afterwards for the entire season. There will a weekly 30-minute show throughout the season. Last time a network wanted to do it, then coach Bob Davie kicked them out after only two day....Here is my annual prediction of how the Irish will do. ND opens at home with win of Texas, 1-0; Irish on road with win at Virginia, 2-0; a close home win over Georgia Tech, 3-0; U of Massachusetts no match for ND, 4-0; Trip to Clemson and first loss, 4-1; ND edges by Navy at home, 5-1; Southern Cal beats ND in South Bend, 5-2; ND in Philly and a win over Temple, 6-2; Pitt upsets the Irish again, 6-3; ND at Wake Forest and a rebound victory, 7-3; Irish get by, barely, Boston College at Fenway Park, 8-3; and ND finieshes the regular season with a win at Stanford, 9-3.