Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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would not be named until sometime in the latter part of August. That remained the lone consistent H ead coach Brian Kelly left no doubt prior to the start of spring drills that a start- ing Notre Dame quarterback element about the quarterback po- sition this spring. Kelly and offen- sive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Chuck Martin took pains to neither anoint a front-runner nor downplay progress. "There were some strides made, BY LOU SOMOGYI Still Searching central issue of the 2012 campaign Quarterback remains the While the foremost priority is mini- mizing turnovers (29 last season) or the bad play, the second priority is almost the antithesis. "You weigh who makes the most but clearly we're not there yet," Kelly said after the April 21 Blue-Gold Game, reciting a familiar company line. tin jokingly announced to a contin- gent of media that he's naming walk- on Charlie Fiessinger the starting quarterback just so it can allay some angst, especially amongst inquiring minds that want to know. "Have you guys ever done a thesis Halfway through the spring, Mar- plays, makes the most positive things happen, versus those negative plays," Martin explained. "No one has the sliding scale of what it is. It's a constant evaluation. You can't play the guy that never turns the ball over and then never makes a play either. There's a balance. "You're going to error [on side of might compare him to the service- able used car that is kept in the ga- rage in case of an emergency. It's a question of whether Kelly still trusts him the most to drive 50-55 miles per hour on college football's Autobahn and not crash the vehicle. • Junior Andrew Hendrix has the "I've seen that movie before" — was evident in the spring game. At this point of Rees career, some study on, 'If you don't name your starter by May 15, you average only seven wins a year?' " cracked Martin, when asked if he had a "timetable" in mind to name a starter. caution] … the turnover is much more disastrous than a good throw is good. Every day we're evaluating, 'Hey, he made these positive things happen.' But you have to weigh it against how many disastrous things happened — because we lived through that last season. Six, seven plays can really change your com- plexion of the whole year. DIFFERENT GAMES. WE'RE NOT INSTALLING TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF OFFENSES. THIS IS ONE OFFENSE THEY ALL HAVE TO MASTER." HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY ON THE QUARTERBACKS "WE'RE NOT CALLING, LIKE WE DID LAST YEAR, TWO page one to help level the playing field at quarterback, where junior Tommy Rees' 16 starts were a signifi- cant advantage over the other three challengers (not including Fiess- inger). Check-offs at the line of scrim- mage weren't even incorporated un- til the 12th practice among the 15 allowed by the NCAA, including the spring game. Consequently, just like it was a The offense this spring began from ery position because we want to clean up the mistakes. Once you clean up the mistakes, now it comes into, 'No one's making mistakes, now who's making the most plays?' " Still, a few things were gleaned at quarterback this spring: • Freshman Gunner Kiel appears given that the spring was not nearly enough time to find a starter, the Irish will be far from a finished prod- uct come Sept. 1 against Navy. The emphasis is just to be polished within a more finite playbook. "We won't be a great team at Navy," Martin said. "I've been around great teams, but we've never been great early in the year. We might have been good enough to win the games, but it keeps growing and growing until December." 24 MAY 2012 Gunner at this point," Kelly said. "He just doesn't have the knowledge base." • Rees' leash might be shorter than "We wanted to slow it down at ev- best combination of arm strength, running ability and overall knowl- edge. However, right now he is like the muscle car that repeatedly has to be taken to the mechanic for tweaks under the hood. According to Kelly, Hendrix's al- batross has been lacking a confident, take-charge command in the huddle — the kind of poise that served Rees so well as a freshman in 2010. The position is his to seize, but now he must take advantage of the opening. • With Golson, it's getting beyond what might be viewed as potential fool's gold success in the Blue-Gold Game. At six-feet tall (if that), the sophomore might need to be rolled out a little more to see over a defense, but his situation is more about 1) not having to be spoon-fed every little detail from the sideline and 2) not overdoing the free-lancing to the det- riment of the team scheme. "He sees the field — he probably destined for a redshirt season despite passing the eyeball test physically. "We can't run everything with the one starter Dayne Crist had for the first 30 minutes of the 2011 sea- son. He still could be the safest bet in a two-minute offense, trailing 21-17 and backed in his territory. Rees has come through in those situations (Michigan and Pitt in 2011, at USC in 2010), but the frustration in Kelly's tone with some of Rees' snafus — has a little more actual feel than An- drew," Martin said. "His focus is on attention to detail, whether it's ball security, whether it's just sticking with the read. There is a time to ad- lib and make something happen — and even Andrew has that ability to do some things out of the pocket — but there's also a time to stick with the plan and not make up stuff." For Kelly, it might be similar to a father not yet ready to let his 16-year- old son take the Escalade for a spin with his high school buddies. Senior All-American tight end Tyle Eifert will be aligned all over the field to provide an appealing target to Irish quarterbacks — whoever it might be. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED