Quarterback is the most high profile position in all of team sports. At Notre Dame, the most high profile program in college football, it takes on an even greater prestige and responsibility.
Think of all the highly publicized quarterbacks in ND history: Brady Quinn, Jimmy Clausen, Joe Theismann, Steve Beuerlein. There’s even a subgroup of stars who all wore the same number (#3)- Joe Montana, Rick Mirer, Ron Powlus.
But now that Clausen has left school early and joined the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, the position belongs to junior Dayne Crist, who like Clausen, was a five-star recruit out of California.
By Paul M. Banks
Crist, a Canoga Park native, coincidentally also played his high school ball at a school named Notre Dame. He ran a spread offense similar to what new Coach Brian Kelly has implemented, so his transition should be a smooth one. Crist has only thrown 20 passes in his college career, but he is very highly touted, a consensus top 25 national prospect when he was being recruited.
I shot a video of Crist at ND Media Day on Tuesday, which you can watch below. But first here are some of the more interesting and insightful answers he gave Tuesday.
On what being the quarterback at Notre Dame means to him…
“This is what I’ve dreamed about doing since I was a little kid so it’s just great that it is all coming to fruition and we’re going to have a chance to do it for real on September 4th.”
On what he learned in the time behind Jimmy Clausen…
“You gain a lot of experience. You kind of see the ins and outs of what it’s like to be the starting quarterback at Notre Dame. You see some of the things that you face both on and off the field. I think that those two years were incredibly valuable for where I am now and my whole development as a quarterback and as a person.”
On what the shotgun means advantage-wise in the spread offense…
“It just helps with spacing overall. Again, that truly fits the system and what Coach Kelly wants and conceptually what he’s asking of our whole offense in general. The spread is just something that really makes defenses, as the name says, spread out and it creates a lot of space and matchups that we like to exploit.”
Written by Paul M. Banks, President and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru