During the summer, I took a pretty hard stance on how I thought Notre Dame should be recruiting for the quarterback position. Basically, I thought they should save the scholarship. Why? Why did I have that opinion?
- I thought Dayne Crist would have a great year.
- I thought Crist would then return for a fifth year in 2012.
- 2012 would still have 4 quarterbacks on the roster, with all of them separated by at least one year of eligibility (with the assumption that Golson was redshirting).
Even with the number one quarterback in the recruiting class (Kiel) and another that fits the spread offense perfectly (Mauk); I still thought Notre Dame should pass.
I am now changing my position. Why?
- Dayne Crist was benches after the first half of the first game of the season in favor of Tommy Rees, and despite a lot of mistakes on Tommy’s part- Crist can barely sniff the field. Most likely, Dayne will transfer to another school to use his last year of eligibility. That’s easy to understand.
- Tommy Rees has limitations in this offense. I like Rees a lot, but he has shown repeatedly that he just doesn’t have the athletic ability to do what Kelly would ultimately like. That causes problems in playcalling.
- Despite a lot of potential, and being the perceived “right fits” for Kelly’s offense, Everett Golson and Andrew Hendrix are still an unknown variable. There is nothing in either players resume that would give me calm if one or the other were to be named the starter.
And that brings us to this: Gunner Kiel. Kiel made headlines when he, as the number one quarterback in the nation, reopened his recruitment after being a verbal commit to Indiana for months. He immediately made a visit to Notre Dame for the USC game. Although there hasn’t been a lot of news that has surfaced from that visit, or anything of substance about Gunner’s timeframe to end his recruitment and commit somewhere; it shouldn’t be much longer. Kiel wants to be an early enrollee, and most likely will commit somewhere before Christmas.
Notre Dame is sitting in pretty good shape if you listen to what most recruiting analysts have been saying. That’s great news for Notre Dame, but there is something interesting you should also know before you start naming Kiel as a lock for ND, and another lock to start at QB in 2012…
The last time Notre Dame got a commitment from the number one quarterback, he was also an early enrollee. His name: Jimmy Clausen. Although there are a lot of people that would disagree with me, I think that Jimmy eventually worked out (please see the stats). However, Jimmy’s freshman year was awful. Not only did Notre Dame go 3-9 in what was Charlie Weis’s third year, it also saw the team become very divided over the decision at quarterback. I won’t get back into all of the gory details, but it was handled poorly by everyone involved.
I’m not sure if Kiel will eventually be Irish, but if he does commit to ND, there will be a lot of chatter about the possibilities of what the future might hold. I am now certain that Notre Dame needs a quarterback in this class- will it be the best one on the country?
