Name something ridiculous in college football? Okay. The fact that Notre Dame hasn’t had a truly elite quarterback since Brady Quinn is astonishing. And it’s a combination of lazy recruiting and poor development.
Notre Dame lost 16-14 to Northern Illinois in what will be one of the biggest upsets in college football this season. And a lot of it was poor quarterback play from transfer Riley Leonard who threw two interceptions including a killer one late in the game. And it got me thinking, how is this possible?
Notre Dame went to Duke to land Leonard, a solid quarterback but a limited passer. Before that it was Wake Forest and Sam Hartman, a solid passer who excelled in a niche offense. Does Notre Dame need to go to two middling (at best) ACC programs for their quarterbacks? Nope. It’s lazy. With their brand and the potential for an elite Notre Dame quarterback to dominate the media, it’s simply astonishing.
Quinn was awesome his last two seasons at Notre Dame, finishing in the top five in Heisman voting and throwing 69 TDs and only 14 picks those two years. After that? Jimmy Clausen was the No. 1 recruit in the country and had some moments but cannot be described as “elite”. And players like Dayne Crist, Tommy Rees, Everett Golson, Malik Zaire, DeShone Kizer, Ian Book, Drew Pyne and others were all mid and over-ranked.
How in hell can an elite program like Notre Dame not win massive quarterback recruiting battles? After Clausen, all of these guys were reaches by Notre Dame standards, each and every one of them. And since Quinn was taken in round one in 2007, no one else has sniffed the first round.
Quarterback play is obviously huge in winning it all and getting to the playoff. Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa and JJ McCarthy are all recent examples of No. 1 guys leading their teams. And unless you have an absolutely loaded roster a la Georgia when Stetson Bennett was under center or Ohio State when Cardale Jones won it all, you’re not going to compete for a national title.
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So every year Notre Dame fans think this is their time, they need to look in the offensive backfield and be realistic. ACC retreads or over-ranked high school kids with average offers won’t do it. And Notre Dame will apparently never learn.
