Rockne's Roundtable

He will be an NFL QB.. He has great arm strength, a great release, and is not afraid to duck his head and take a hit. Barring a rash of injuries, I don't see him playing this year. Kelly says he is extremely coachable. Everybody knows the QB story at ND now. Golson has to learn to manage and Hendrix has to stop the bonehead passing decisons. Whoever is the starter had better perform well or Kiel will be right there next year. Just MHO.

If ND goes 9-4 with Golson, then he played really well most likely. To even hint at a competition the following year would just be silly and a mistake in my eyes. At some point we have to allow talent and experience to mold together instead of looking at the next guy in line after the first sign of struggles. It's getting ridiculous. Kid looks good, we hope he is good. I do not hope we do something like start with Rees, switch to Hendrix, then switch to Golson just to do the same thing the next year and the next year. The sad thing is that Rees I wuold say has the shortest leash right now with Irish Nation if he gets the nod. Hendrix, I think is the least talented personally and not extremely experienced. Golson is still very raw and inexperienced. In all three cases, unless they pull off a 10-2, 11-1 type season. I wouldn't say any of those 3 would have solidified their spot for 2013. We need stability and confidence at the position, not instability and quarter by quarter competition.

I like Kiel--he's really a humble kid who is one step ahead of the game already. Why? Because he knows that he doesn't understand much yet. You can see him trying his best with what he's got and not letting attitude or the fact that he was such a blue chipper get in the way of his development. Shows good maturity through the acknowledgment of immaturity.

Take Clausen, for example, who at pretty much every point in his development claimed that he had a good handle on it, that the game had slowed down already, that he was ready. Obviously that wasn't the case (and it rubbed the players around him the wrong way).

Kiel seems like he will be the type of player who develops true inner confidence through time and struggles (aka trials and tribulations), not the type of player who claims confidence falsely.

Physically I was shocked how ready he appears physically. He looked about as big a Dayne Crist already. I loved his presence in the pocket, stood tall, eyes down field, as someone pointed out appeared to have no fear of contact.

I didn't get to see him run, but I'm still wondering how he fits the mold of a mobile QB in Kelly's offense? Andrew Luck was big and could run, so maybe Kiel can motor too.

He looked like a true freshman. Has a nice are and good size, but I dont know what you guys were looking at? He didnt do anything that would make me think he is anything great.

it WILL NOT matter who gets the starting job between golson, hendrix or kiel (sorry rees). with everybody so green, if we DO NOT have a committment to running the ball, and with success, any of the three will make more mistakes than kelly likes. we MUST run, to give these kids time to execute the spread as it is intended to be. am i the only idiot on this board to think this way?

Clancy I think you are on board with BK . I feel like we will see a great running game this year with the backs we have
and the OLine . GAIII fumbled Sat but so did J Gray, and look how he finished "GREAT". Gunner will fit into this scheme in a year or two, running will give him or whoever more time to find targets. It all starts in the trenches.