Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/841614
44 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2017 FOOTBALL PREVIEW QUARTERBACKS T here is nothing that was more overrated in head coach Brian Kelly's first seven seasons at Notre Dame than the need of an experienced quarterback to run the offense. Kelly is 23‑4 (.851) when he starts a true freshman or redshirt freshman at QB, and 36‑27 (.571) otherwise. In junior Brandon Wimbush, he has someone who is in between. On one hand Wimbush has been with the team three years. On the other, he was redshirted last year, and made only two game appearances in a mop‑up role as a freshman in 2015. There have been two parts to Kelly's success with neophyte quarterbacks. One, the team was able to thrive collec‑ tively because it was experienced with a lot of proven figures on offense or defense, if not both. That will be the case on offense again in 2017, especially with a line that returns four starters and 76 career starts (compared to 27 last year). Two, when the offense doesn't put too much on the quarterback's plate that can create a paralysis‑by‑analysis situation, the unit often has functioned better by being less expansive. "When I'm forced to go back to what I believe are the tenets of our offense and de‑ fense, I revert back to those basics," Kelly admitted. Quarterbacks always will be asked to as‑ sess defenses, but too much checking off at the line can create a negative set of checks and balances, if not cranium overload on everyone. "We've added a little bit too much — 'Check this, check that,'" Kelly said last year. "Run the damn play! … Sometimes relatively correct with good players is bet‑ ter than being absolutely correct and then really slowing down your team. That might have been the case a little bit." In the spring of 2015 under new quarter‑ backs coach Mike Sanford, Kelly empha‑ sized that too much attention the prior year (8‑5 finish) was devoted to scheme and not to sound technique and fundamentals. The exact same verbiage was used this spring with new coordinator Chip Long and first‑year quarterbacks coach Tom Rees. Wimbush is neither a true or redshirt freshman, although it might feel like it. What is crucial is he has a veteran support‑ ing case around him where the onus won't be placed so much on him like it was on second‑round NFL pick DeShone Kizer last year during the 4‑8 fiasco. ✦ NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY Under Brian Kelly, Notre Dame has had its most success with less-seasoned signal-callers Tom Rees, who started 31 games for the Irish from 2010-13, is the youngest (age 25) full-time on-field position coach hired at Notre Dame since 1978. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND