Filed under: Notre Dame

Five chafing questions as Notre Dame prepares for its season opener and the debut of the Brian Kelly era (only the fourth “era” since Dr. Lou departed 14 years ago) in South Bend versus Purdue on Saturday:

1. Body of Crist? Junior quarterback Dayne Crist will make his first start for the Irish since tearing an ACL last Halloween night versus Washington State in the Alamodome. Kelly was an absolute magician in his last two seasons at Cincinnati when it came to pulling quarterbacks out of his hat. In 2008, he won the Big East despite having to use a fifth-string quarterback. Last year, after Tony Pike was lost to injury, he inserted Zach Collaros, who only set a Big East record for total offense in one game with 480 yards passing and 75 yards rushing.

Kelly would prefer not to have to perform an encore in 2010. The Irish have depth at every offensive skill position except quarterback, where the inexperienced Crist’s backups are freshman Tommy Rees and junior-juco-returnee Nate Montana. They’ve taken no snaps at the FBS level between them.

Crist is charismatic, mobile, big, strong and humble. Wally Cleaver looks up to him. He’s the type of quarterback the priests here would consider an answered prayer. But he needs to stay healthy. If Crist starts all 12 games for Notre Dame, it has a chance to be a nine- or 10-win team. And headline writers from coast-to-coast will have a field day.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments