Somewhat lost amid the hoopla -- and tumult -- of Brian Kelly being named Notre Dame’s new head coach is the fact that the Irish are desperately thin at the QB position.
Last year’s starter, Jimmy Clausen, has already announced that he’s leaving a year early for the NFL. Clausen’s heir apparent, Dayne Crist, suffered a torn ACL earlier this season and is iffy for spring ball.
With Charlie Weis not signing a QB in 2009, that leaves Kelly with John Goodman, a sophomore wide receiver who played QB his senior season of high school out of necessity; high school senior Tommy Rees, who plans to enroll early at Notre Dame; and walk-on Brian Costello.
At this point in time, that’s it. Those are Kelly’s options.
Although, on the kinda, sorta bright side, highly-touted Cincinnati high school quarterback Andrew Hendrix has given a verbal commitment to the Irish, but that was when Weis was in charge. He’s now reportedly rethinking that commitment.
But, again, the QB cupboard is bare in South Bend. To his credit, Kelly isn’t crying all over his bank statement with the situation he’s facing.
“It’s the cards I’ve got. I’m not going to complain about it,” Kelly said. “I’m going to make it work, find the best solutions and I think I’ve already identified, it’s not an ideal situation. But you know what, it ends right there. We’ll do our very, very best to get those guys ready.”
The good news for the Irish faithful is that Kelly seemingly grew quarterbacks on trees in Cincinnati and Central Michigan, plucking one off after the other off limbs here and there when eligibility ran out or injuries hit or other issues necessitated a change at the position.
And, the way things look right now, Kelly’s going to need a lot of plucking luck heading into spring ball as he attempts to identify his man under center.