Notre Dame & QB Inexperience
A popular inquiry this spring is whether Notre Dame has ever entered a football season with less game-time experience at quarterback than 2017.
None of the top three players at the position this spring — junior Brandon Wimbush, sophomore Ian Book and senior Montgomery VanGorder — took a single snap on offense last year (VanGorder did serve as the holder on placekicks).
Since 1967, or the past 50 years, this will mark only the second time the starting quarterback at Notre Dame will not have thrown a pass the year prior, although Wimbush was 3-of-5 for 17 yards as a 2015 freshman before redshirting last season behind DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire.
It happened in 1966 too when the top three quarterbacks — Terry Hanratty, Coley O’Brien and Bob Belden — were sophomores who were ineligible as freshmen the year before because of NCAA rules back then. That was hardly a negative as the Irish went on to win the national title.
Of course, that year the Irish had a supreme supporting cast that on offense included four future top 25 NFL picks, and an impregnable defense that permitted only 24 points all season, led by future Pro Bowl luminaries Alan Page and linebacker Jim Lynch.
The supporting cast should be there this year on offense with eight starters returning — most all of them legitimate NFL prospects — but the defense has much farther to travel. Allowing less than 24 points per game, never mind a season (like in 1966), would be a positive after a 27.8 average in 2016.
Still, going back to the original question, here were five other times the past 50 seasons where Notre Dame was entering a season without a quarterback who had either 1) started at least once in his career or 2) thrown 20 or fewer passes:
1. Pat Steenberge/Bill Etter (1971)
Career Passes Thrown: Etter was 5 of 12 in 1969 as the top backup, but sat out 1970 with a health ailment. Steenberge was 7 of 15 as the top reserve in 1970.
Man Replaced: 1968-70 starter Joe Theismann.
Result: Steenberge started the first two games and Etter took over in the third game before a season-ending injury a week later. Sophomore Cliff Brown stepped in from there for an offense that struggled (21 or fewer points eight times during an 8-2 season) and couldn’t complement a defense that allowed only 8.6 points per game (fifth in the nation). The Irish finished No. 13 in the AP, the lowest in head coach Ara Parseghian’s first eight seasons.
2. Rick Slager (1975)
Career Passes Thrown: 3 of 8 for 39 yards.
Man Replaced: 1972-74 starter Tom Clements.
Result: Only one starter returned on offense from the previous season. Slager made the cover of Sports Illustrated after a 2-0 start under first-year head coach Dan Devine. But sophomore backup Joe Montana became “The People’s Choice” when he came off the bench to lead comeback wins over Northwestern, North Carolina and Air Force through the first half of the season.
Montana, who completed 42.4 percent of his 66 passes, lost his first two starts before suffering a season ending injury in his third. The duo completed 46 percent of their passes overall with six touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Notre Dame finished 8-3 and outside the AP Top 20 for the first time in 12 years. Like in 1971, the team also voted to turn down a bowl bid.
3. Ron Powlus (1994)
Career Passes Thrown: 0, as he was sidelined his freshman year in 1993 with a broken clavicle.
Man Replaced: 1993 starter Kevin McDougal.
Result: With the graduation of the bulk of a fantastic senior class that led the Irish to an 11-1 mark and debatable No. 2 finish in 1993, Notre Dame finished 6-5-1, its worst record in eight years. Powlus, the current director of player development at Notre Dame, enjoyed a fine first year statistically with 22 touchdown passes compared to 10 interceptions.
4. Demetrius Jones/Jimmy Clausen (2007)
Career Passes Thrown: None between the two, but junior Evan Sharpley did go 1 of 2 the previous season.
Man Replaced: 2003-06 starter Brady Quinn.
Result: Jones’ starting stint lasted less than a half in the 33-3 opening game loss to Georgia Tech. The nation’s No. 1 recruit, Clausen, took over the following week, and Jones left the team the ensuing week while the Irish headed toward a 3-9 campaign, the most losses they ever had in a season. Sharpley also started several times when Clausen was injured. The two worst back-to-back recruiting classes in Notre Dame history (2004 and 2005) caught up with it when they became seniors and juniors in 2007.
5. Dayne Crist (2010)
Career Passes Thrown: He redshirted as a 2008 freshman and then completed 10-of-20 for 130 yards as Clausen’s backup in 2009 before suffering a knee injury. Still, the five-star recruit Crist easily was first-year head coach Brian Kelly’s top option.
Man Replaced: 2007-09 starter Clausen.
Result: Crist put up pretty good numbers (59.2 percent completions, 2,033 yards, 15 TDs, seven interceptions), but the Irish stumbled to a 4-5 start and Crist suffered another season-ending knee injury early in the ninth game. When freshman Tommy Rees, now the Irish quarterbacks coach, took over as the starter, the Notre Dame defense was magnificent during a 4-0 finish while allowing only 39 points. The running game also was more emphasized.
Moral of the story: QB inexperience can be negligible if the supporting cast on offense, defense and special teams are strong.
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