Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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spend the time I needed to spend on being an elite high school quarter- back." Remember when it seemed inevi- table that incoming freshman Brandon Wimbush would quickly move past Kizer, prompting his transfer? Remember when prior to the sea- son the popular opinion was, "If Zaire gets hurt, Notre Dame's dead in the water"? So here was Kizer posting a 156.98 quarterback efficiency ranking — which puts him No. 1 on the all-time career chart at Notre Dame, barely ahead of the 156.7 by Kevin McDougal (more on him later). Meanwhile, he also had rushed for 338 yards and eight touchdowns, the latter one short of the single-season school record for quarterbacks. Surprised? You shouldn't be. When you look at most of the greatest Notre Dame campaigns in the last 51 years, a common thread was making the QB question mark into a resounding ex- clamation point: JOHN HUARTE (1964) In Parseghian's debut year, the se- nior had never even won a monogram and had finished the previous season on the third team. He had one start as a junior, a 7-6 loss to Purdue during a 2-7 campaign. During the amazing 9-1 turnaround in '64, Huarte won the Heisman Tro- phy while leading the Irish to a share of the national title and becoming the first player in school history to pass for more than 2,000 yards in a season after totaling 281 his previous varsity campaigns. TERRY HANRATTY/COLEY O'BRIEN (1966) The two newcomers debuted on the varsity as sophomores. Hanratty would make the cover of Time in Oc- tober. Meanwhile, the diabetic O'Brien, who would never play pro football, finished the national title run by rally- ing the Irish from a 10-0 deficit at No. 2 Michigan State and then starring in the 51-0 stomping of Pac-8 champ USC, earning him Sports Illustrated National Player of the Week honors on offense. After the titanic Michigan State game, Detroit Free Press writer Joe Falls, admittedly not a Notre Dame devotee, said his No. 1 vote would go to the Irish because they still produced with O'Brien. Wrote Falls of O'Brien: "He looks like a tumbleweed being blown across the flat prairie lands, no bigger than the quarterback at North Farmington High. … But he fused the spark in his team." Michigan State All-American defen- sive end Bubba Smith even lamented that he had knocked out Hanratty from the game, because O'Brien was more elusive. TOM CLEMENTS (1973) He finished his sophomore year 9-of-22 passing with three intercep- tions in a 40-6 Orange Bowl loss to Nebraska to cap Notre Dame's worst season in 10 years. Clements also did not possess the size to play in the NFL (which would not draft him despite there being 17 rounds back then). A year later, the Irish were national champions with Clements as a dual threat and vener- ated leader.