Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com MAY 2019 61 of sorts during an 8-0 start in 2002 under first-year head coach Tyrone Willingham. With starter Carlyle Holiday in- jured and the Irish trailing at Michi- gan State, Dillingham threw a 60-yard touchdown pass to Arnaz Battle on a simple slant when he correctly read a blitz with 1:15 remaining in the 21-17 victory. The next week he started in a 31-7 win against the Stanford Cardinal, Willingham's previous employer. The season would take a turn south in the final five games when Holiday was injured again, but few walk-on quarterbacks at Notre Dame ever tasted the temporary glory Dillingham did. JIMMY CLAUSEN (WESTLAKE VILLAGE): 2007-09 He surpassed Powlus as the most ballyhooed quarterback ever to enroll at Notre Dame, but endured a miser- able baptism of fire, first during a 3-9 campaign as a freshman and then as a sophomore tying the school record for most interceptions thrown (18) in a season during a 7-6 campaign. As a junior, he broke Notre Dame's 60-year single-season pass efficiency standard, which led him to turn pro … but the Irish were only 6-6 again. About every 23 years — Lamonica (1960-62), Beuerlein (1983-86) and Clausen (2007-09) — the football tim- ing was just bad for a California quar- terback recruit. Will it happen again sometime around 2032? DAYNE CRIST (CANOGA PARK): 2008-11 One year after one California five- star QB in Clausen signed, another in Crist followed, demonstrating no fear of competition. Crist succeeded Clausen as the starter in 2010 to be- gin the Brian Kelly era, but a second torn ACL in as many years during a 4-4 start ended that campaign. He began 2011 as the starter as well, but held the job for only one half during a 0-2 start before get- ting replaced by current Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Tommy Rees. As a gradu- ate transfer, he started for Charlie Weis — the man who recruited him — at Kansas in 2012, but struggled during a massive rebuild and 1-11 finish. IAN BOOK (EL DORADO HILLS): 2016-PRESENT Not nearly as heralded as a three- star prospect, especially when com- pared to Clausen and Crist, Book as a sophomore came off the bench in the 2018 Citrus Bowl to rally Notre Dame to a 21-17 victory versus LSU with two fourth-quarter touchdown passes. Then in 2018 he replaced starter Brandon Wimbush in game four and guided a 12-0 regular season that earned a bid to the College Football Playoff while he broke Clausen's single-season completion percentage mark (68.15) and finished 17th na- tionally in pass efficiency (153.97), the highest ever in Kelly's nine seasons. With two more years of eligibil- ity remaining, the last chapter hasn't been written yet in this Book … nor with Fighting Irish quarterbacks from California. Note: Other quarterback prospects from California who signed with Notre Dame included Kerry Moriarty and Kevin Muno in the 1970s, Jim O'Hara played in 1982 as a walk-on, Tom Byrne in the 1980s, and Darrin Bragg in the early 2000s. Plus, when Nate Montana enrolled as a preferred walk-on in 2008, he joined fellow California quarterbacks Clausen and Crist on the roster. ✦ Last year, El Dorado Hills product Ian Book set the single-season school record for completion percentage (68.15) and finished 17th nationally in pass efficiency (153.97 rating). PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL States Of The Quarterback Union Since 1960, Notre Dame has had 49 different starters at quarterback who hailed from 16 states. Here is a breakdown of the most starts during that time at the position from one state, with the names in chronological order: 1. Pennsylvania — 140: Terry Hanratty (26), Pat Steenberge (two), Cliff Brown (six), Tom Clements (34), Joe Montana (24), Paul Failla (two) and Ron Powlus (46). 2. California — 122: Daryle Lamonica (15), John Huarte (11), Steve Beuerlein (39), Tom Krug (two), Pat Dillingham (one), Jimmy Clausen (34), Dayne Crist (10) and Ian Book (10). 3. Ohio — 100: Sandy Bonvechio (two), Tom Schoen (one), Rick Slager (19), Tim Koegel (five), Scott Grooms (one), Brady Quinn (46), Malik Zaire (three) and DeShone Kizer (23). 4. Indiana — 66: Blair Kiel (30) and Rick Mirer (36). 5. Illinois — 58: George Haffner (seven), Denis Szot (five), Rusty Lisch (13), Kent Graham (one), De- metrius Jones (one) and Tommy Rees (31). The other 11 states and the number of career starts at quarterback since 1960 are South Carolina (54), New Jersey (51), Florida (31), Texas (24), Mississippi (23), Michigan (nine), Iowa (four), Louisiana (two), Washington (two), Alabama (one) and Virginia (one). — Lou Somogyi Steve Beuerlein of Fullerton notched a 21-18 record as a starter from 1983-86, but is the only Fighting Irish quarterback to go 4-0 against archrival USC. PHOTO COURTESY FIGHTING IRISH DIGITAL MEDIA