Brian Kelly, Notre Dame must continue to focus on 'rebuilding keys'

Notre Dame is off to its best start of the Brian Kelly era, opening the season with six consecutive wins and being ranked fifth in both this week's AP poll and the season's first BCS standings.

Before Notre Dame suffers a loss and momentum is potentially halted, Eric Murtaugh of One Foot Down wants to appreciate and examine the process of rebuilding and the progress that has been made under Brian Kelly:

The program building needs to reach a certain level of sustained success before we set our goals higher because Brian Kelly did not take over from a dynasty built by Pete Carroll at USC, but instead one held together by yarn by Charlie Weis at Notre Dame.

Murtaugh also lays out 10 "rebuilding keys" that he feels are crucial in order for Notre Dame to achieve sustained success.

Despite already beating three ranked teams including No. 17 Stanford last Saturday, the Fighting Irish have two stiff road tests remaining on their schedule as they travel to face No. 9 Oklahoma on October 27 and No. 10 USC on November 25. With the strength of schedule in mind, Notre Dame would most likely play for the BCS National Championship game should they go undefeated this season.

This is Brian Kelly's third season as head coach at Notre Dame.