Blue and Gold Illustrated

Nov. 27, 2017*

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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4 NOV. 27, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED A fter the way Notre D a m e q u a r t e r b a c k B r a n d o n Wi m b u s h played in the 41‑8 loss to Miami Nov. 11, the Irish ju‑ nior might actually agree with the interesting assess‑ ment recently put out by his head coach Brian Kelly. "Last year, he had the best job in college football … backing up," Kelly said of Wimbush enjoying a pres‑ sure‑free redshirt season in 2016 to sit, study and learn. Poor accuracy, visible anxiousness, multiple turn‑ overs and a first‑half hook against the Hurricanes all meant that Wimbush chose the biggest game of his career to play the worst game of his career. "I don't think anyone's worried about Brandon," Kelly said afterward on his quarterback's behalf. But a disturbing pattern of quarterback regression and games like these are bringing plenty of worry. So what gives? Kelly arrived at Notre Dame in 2010 known as kind of a "quarter‑ back whisperer" after maximizing the skills of unknowns Tony Pike and Zach Collaros as the head coach of Cincinnati in 2009 during an unde‑ feated regular season. During their first four recruiting cycles at Notre Dame, Kelly and Co. signed quarterbacks Everett Golson (2011), Gunner Kiel (2012), Malik Zaire (2013) and DeShone Kizer (2014). The first three transferred (Golson and Zaire after graduating) and Kizer left school after his junior season. Of the three that played at Notre Dame — all but Kiel — each did his best work as an underclassman. Part of this regression pattern has to be blamed on an alarming lack of player and coaching continuity within the program, some of which has been beyond Kelly's control. In the last five seasons, Kelly has had four quarterbacks coaches: Tom Rees this year, Mike Sanford in 2015‑16, Matt LaFleur in 2014 and Chuck Martin in 2013. On the player side, be it through injury, suspension, benching or trans‑ fer, Kelly has never had the same starting quarterback through two full consecutive seasons since he has been at Notre Dame, and he has had a different opening‑day starter at QB in each of the last seven seasons. The turbulent timeline of quar‑ terbacks during the Kelly era goes something like this. With Jimmy Clausen and former head coach Charlie Weis out the door after the 2009 season, sophomore Dayne Crist was Kelly's clear choice to start in 2010, but an ACL injury cut Crist's season short and made Rees, a true freshman, the starter. Crist also started in 2011, but was benched at halftime of the season opener. Rees again took over, and Crist transferred to Kansas. Golson, a sophomore, emerged as the starter in 2012 and unexpectedly managed the team to an undefeated regular season — with some solid relief help from Rees — and a place in the national championship game. Academic issues cost Golson all of the 2013 season and again made Rees the full‑time starter. Golson returned to the starting post in 2014, but over the final month became a one‑man turnover factory, ultimately playing his final season at Florida State. Enter Zaire. The can't‑miss dual‑threat sophomore took MVP honors after an upset of No. 22 LSU in the 2014 Mu‑ sic City Bowl before he led a 38‑3 rout of Texas in the 2015 season opener that brought some Heisman hype and title talk. But an injury to Zaire in the second game of the 2015 season marked the arrival of Kizer and essentially ended Zaire's career as the Irish starter after he also badly re‑ gressed and eventually trans‑ ferred to Florida. Kizer was brilliant as a sophomore starter in 2015, leading the Irish to 10 wins and a trip to the Fiesta Bowl, all while conjuring talk that he would be the Heisman favorite as a junior in 2016. After Kizer 's production fell off drastically his junior year, he skipped his senior season and went to the NFL, or in his case, he went to the Cleveland Browns. Get all of that? Now batting, Wimbush — who has been in Kelly's system for three years, but is still routinely talked about as if he's a true freshman. "We're getting to know him," Kelly said. "It's his first year in the fire." Kelly insists that Wimbush "is go‑ ing to bounce back really well," and let's hope so. Because even after the Miami melt‑ down, Wimbush still has two years of eligibility remaining after this sea‑ son and provides Kelly the perfect chance to find stability at this posi‑ tion, and to prove to the naysayers that the he can finally keep and mold an elite quarterback. ✦ QB Consistency Or More QB Confusion? UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com Junior Brandon Wimbush struggled in the 41-8 loss at Miami Nov. 11, but with two seasons of eligibility remaining he is Notre Dame's best chance to achieve some stability at quarterback during Brian Kelly's tenure. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA

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