Rockne's Roundtable

I agree 1,000% Tommy has done a great job in whatever situation he is thrown in to. He has earned lots of respect for what he has done and not being a big cry-baby about it either. Lighten up a bit folks and give credit where its due.

I'm going to take a contrary view - not sure that recruiting Elite 11 QBs and then red-shirting them; hoping that in their third year on campus they may be able to play is the best answer. We have seen elite teams throw freshman right into the mix with great results - Oregon, Stanford, etc. (Not to mention the Heisman trophy winner, who was on the scout team year 1).

Hendrix is not a D1 starting QB; and Rees is a great back-up (period). Would love to see them put Zaire in the mix. His goal should be to get to #3 QB this year - unseating Hendrix. Then be pushing Golson the year after.

I think we're stating the obvious here. If a starter, any starter gets injured then chances are it isn't going to be good.

Headed into spring, Kiel was the fourth guy until he proved otherwise as far as I'm concerned. He may very well could have won the backup job behind Golson, but we'll never know now.

Ham - how much is it an exception if a number of top programs in a given year have outstanding red-shirt QBs? All I am suggesting is we seem to think there is a prototypical "slow route" to starting at QB for an elite program - there are plenty of exceptions to that. Even if the guys I mention are red shirts - they are starting and doing well in first college action.

come on, how tough is it to throw a fade pass? lol.

the key to the ND offense is to further develop the OL so they can have a running game they can count on every game. ND is not there yet. it appears that BK wants a QB who can run as part of that equation. they also need to develop the screen game and start to use the whole field with the passing game.

Jim, maybe I misconstrued your original point, but I thought you were advocating for Zaire to get some time this year because other Freshmen did well this year. I pointed out they were all redshirt Frosh which I think is a significant difference. Golson was scout team last year, still raw in the first few games and then started to take off. Most QB's sit as pure Freshmen because it's a slow learning curve. Zaire might play this year but only if he's exceptional, or there's significant attrition.

One follow up comment : I just felt Kiel was the real deal. No proof, though. Time will tell.

As far as Tommy goes, he has done a great job under difficult circumstances at ND and I respect him for his efforts under these circumstances. I think that he is smart and could lead the team next year so that we did not have a newbe at QB, however, with teams having a week to prepare for him rather than coming in as a relief ND would often struggle.

I can't help thinking that the love shown for Tommy on some posts above would be quite the opposite if Golson was hurt and Tommy was really our starter for much of next season. Then, we would be reading how Tommy can't throw deep, run, or extend plays.

I don't think Notre Dame has had five scholarship QBs on the roster since Lou Holtz's first year in 1986, when he had Beuerlein, Andrysiak, Belles, Pete Graham and freshman Tony Rice, who was actually ineligible that season.

Five scholarship QBs won't happen. Brian Kelly himself had said in spring that he doesn't want to rep more than four QBs.

The days of seven and eight scholarship QBs (freshman Joe Montana was seventh on the depth chart in 1974) on a roster are long, long over.