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Notre Dame Fighting Irish Head Coach Brian Kelly announced during his Tuesday press conference that Senior Dayne Crist will be the starting Quarterback on September 3rd against South Florida. Coach Kelly was emphatic that this wasn't just a decision for Game 1:
Dayne will be the starter and I expect him to be the starter for 13 weeks
Crist won the job during training camp over Sophomore Tommy Rees, who led the Irish to four straight wins to end the season in 2010. Both guys took reps with the first and second teams throughout camp, giving the coaches all the information they needed to make this decision.
Crist is coming off a knee injury suffered in the first quarter against Tulsa last season, and Kelly talked about the improvement he's seen from his new starting QB:
He's a much better quarterback and, quite frankly and honestly, he's the kind of guy I want to coach
Kelly also announced Chris Watt will be the starting Offensive Guard over Andrew Nuss, Jamoris Slaughter will start at Safety over Zeke Motta, and Dan Fox will start over Carlo Calabrese at Inside Linebacker, next to Manti Te'o.
Friday was the last day of Training Camp for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and Head Coach Brian Kelly has seen enough of both Senior Dayne Crist and Sophomore Tommy Rees to name his starting quarterback for the season opener against South Florida on September 3rd.
At his post-practice media session on Friday, Kelly said he would make his announcement on Tuesday as to who the starter would be:
Today was really the end of them breaking up reps between Tommy [Rees] and Dayne [Crist]. We'll meet this weekend, and we'll make an announcement Tuesday of who the Quarterback is.
He has said throughout camp that he would not hold off on naming his starter, so that the Bulls would have to gameplan for both, and he would name his starter when he was ready to do so, which looks to be Tuesday. He wants to give his starter, whether it be Crist or Rees, the majority of the practice snaps in order to prepare for Week 1.
Crist is coming off his second consecutive season that ended with a knee injury, looking to regain the starting job he had until the injury in the first quarter against Tulsa. Rees started the final 4 games for the Irish last year, and won them all thanks in large part to a defense that played magnificently. Kelly said on Tuesday that the fact that the two guys are so close is not a sign that Crist has regressed:
Your first inclination has been that Dayne (Crist) has slipped. He has not. He's much better. He's a much better football player than he was at this time last year in all aspects: demeanor, focus, buying into Brian Kelly's system vis à vis other systems that he's had taught to him. All those things have made him a better football player and a better quarterback.
But Tommy Rees came in as a blank slate. He didn't have any other systems that we had to flush out. So Tommy has really hit the ground running, and that's why it's made it such a great competition.
So we've got two quarterbacks that have gotten better from last year more so than anybody slipping a peg or two.
Kelly has been known to cycle through quarterbacks regularly, so whoever is not named the starter will need to be on high alert, as they could be called upon at any moment.
Even though practice has now been ongoing for 10 days, Notre Dame is hosting their annual Media Day Tuesday, and it was kicked off with the Head Coach Brian Kelly, who seemed very upbeat and optimistic about the season. His opening comments centered around how "focused" his team was, saying:
This is the most focused team I've ever coached.
He was asked what exactly he meant by that, since he's won multiple National Championships at Grand Valley State, as well as going 12-0 with Cincinnati back in 2009:
Some teams I had were extremely focused on Saturday. This group keeps distractions at bay, keeping focused on the task at hand. They really want to practice football, and they really want to play football. They have the want and desire to be championship football team. Winning six and eight games doesn't fill you up. They want more, and you can see that in their focus.
The biggest topic, of course, is the Quarterback situation, where the Fighting Irish started camp with four guys all vying for the job. Kelly had an update on the situation:
Dayne [Crist] and Tommy [Rees] have separated themselves from the other two. Both guys can take the whole offense and run with it. Both can play championship football for us. There is the slightest of margins between the two right now.
The other two guys [Andrew Hendrix and Everett Golson] haven't mastered the entire offensive system yet, but excel in certain parts, and I'm confident, if asked to contribute, can do those certain parts of the offense well.
Kelly also explained what is going into his decision, and what he's looking for at the Quarterback position:
He must be a master of the entire Offensive system. He must be efficient in all areas: Playcalling, getting the right protections set up, getting the right people the football, and taking great care of the football, something we definitely had to improve from last year.
As far as the rest of the team, he's been quite impressed with the young guys on the defensive line, as well as the offensive skill position rookies:
They are all physically imposing. They get your attention. Guys like Louis Nix, Aaron Lynch, Stephon Tuitt. Also standing out are guys like DaVaris Daniels, George Atkinson, and Cam McDaniel, who will all see the field for us this season.
How about the upperclassmen?
Kapron Lewis-Moore is a different football player. Him and Ethan Johnson played too many snaps last season, so having the depth now will make these guys that much more dangerous, especially on third down, where we struggled last year. Gary Gray, Robert Blanton, and Harrison Smith are all more mature physically, and very much taking on leadership roles. On offense, Cierre Wood has really been complete: blitz pickup, catching the ball, running physically. He's been very impressive.
Kelly also wasn't shy about where his team's weakness was either:
Offensive skill position depth. Last season we needed to add depth defensively immediate, so we focused all our attention there. We have that now, so this recruiting cycle we'll focus on the offensive skill guys. We can't 'roll out the next guy' yet, but we will. I'll put my 22 against anyone else, but the game isn't played with 22. Depth is our main weakness. That's not going to be good enough. Have to develop that next level of players.
The only injuries he had to report were Freshmen Safety Eiler Hardy will miss the entire season with a knee injury, Tate Nichols dislocated his knee, but is ahead of schedule, and could be back for the opener, and Mike Ragone is battling a quad strain, keeping him out of practice.
Full video and a transcript will be made available later today on und.com.
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Aug 24 10:00a