I've been watching a lot of film and doing a lot of research the last few days because something has really been gnawing at me. I wrote an article last year after Stanford that if Notre Dame wants to compete for a title it absolutely MUST get championship caliber quarterback play.
I've been going round and round with people the last few months about Brandon Wimbush and whether or not he should be the QB at Notre Dame. One thing I've never argued is that Wimbush has played like a championship quarterback with any consistency. No one can honestly say that. Yes, he has flashed that, and I believe if Wimbush plays every week like he did against Temple, Michigan State, USC, Wake Forest and to a certain degree Michigan then I think this offense - and this team - can be very good.
But Wimbush hasn't played championship quarterback, and Notre Dame hasn't had anyone play championship level quarterback. But why? Wimbush was a consensus Top 100 recruit that almost set a national completion record and now he can't accurately throw the football? Dayne Crist was a 5-star QB that flamed out. Everett Golson was a talented QB who regressed. Malik Zaire starts off 3-0 and then gets injured and is tossed aside. DeShone Kizer shows tremendous promise and then regresses. Now we are seeing a talented QB in Wimbush not come close to maximizing his potential.
Why?
Why were Notre Dame's three best seasons under Brian Kelly - by far - the season's in which he had the least amount of experience at QB? If you add in the 4-0 finish to the 2010 season you are talking about the three best seasons and one of the best stretches outside of those three seasons and you have no experience at QB.
Why?
A big reason for me is that I don't believe the coaching at the position has been good in the past (Molnar, Sanford) and because big picture this is a team that continues to try to fit its offense around what the decision makers want, not what best fits the team. Why do I say that?
When Crist went down and Rees took over Notre Dame became a defense oriented team that tried to run the football.
When Golson was a RS freshman with no experience Notre Dame became a defense-oriented team that ran the ball and tailored the offense to the things he did well. When he had experience they tried to go back to being a throw it all around the field football team.
When Zaire and Kizer were new starters with no experience they were a running oriented team that stretched the field and tried to play good defense. When Kizer got more experience they became an offense that wanted to throw the ball all around the field. They went away from things that Kizer did well and tried to do too much.
When Wimbush was a first-year starter with no experience they were a team that ran the football and built the offense around what he did well.
Think about it. In those seasons - including the finish to 2010 - Notre Dame averaged 216.1 yards per game on the ground and 5.5 yards per rush. The record is 36-7.
In seasons/games with "experienced" quarterback play the offense averaged 158.8 yards per game on the ground and 4.4 yards per rush, and the record is 33-27.
To me it goes back to the desire that when you have experience at QB the coaches at Notre Dame spend too much time trying to build the offense they want as opposed to the offense they should be running that is focused on their best quarterback.
As I break down the first three games I'm seeing this pattern repeat itself. We are seeing a Notre Dame offense that in some ways is rightfully pushing the ball downfield at a much higher rate. Last season Wimbush threw just 64 deep balls (20+ yards past the line), and he completed just 22. This year - through three games - Notre Dame has already thrown 27 deep balls, which puts it on pace for 108 deep throws.
We are seeing Notre Dame ask Wimbush to do a lot more full field reads, and to make a lot more pre and post snap decisions than we saw last year in games where he really thrived. In those games we saw more half-field reads, we saw him throw more play-action or dropback throws that were one-on-one situations. And the offense was built around his ability to run the football.
All offseason Notre Dame seemed to focus the vast, vast majority of its practice time on making Wimbush a pocket passer. As I evaluate the play-calling from the first three games I see an offense that is built for a pro-style quarterback, which isn't what Wimbush is. They are throwing in designed runs, but Wimbush looks far less comfortable running this year than last year, which was a concern Lou brought up during the spring and fall.
So Notre Dame is sitting here with a 3-0 record but it also has a sputtering offense. Wimbush is going to get all the blame, just like Rees did in 2013, Golson did in 2014 and Kizer did in 2016. But is it really the quarterbacks? I don't think that it is. When the same thing keeps happening every single time it stops being about the QB's and has to be something that we look at say it goes beyond them.
I said in our preseason podcast that one of my biggest concerns is that Notre Dame wouldn't build its offense around Wimbush and instead run the offense it wants regardless of who the QB is. We are seeing that, and for some ridiculous reason they are taking out Wimbush in the red zone and putting in a passer, despite Wimbush leading Notre Dame to its best red zone offense in over a decade last season. We are seeing an offense that schematically doesn't look much like the offense we've seen in games where Wimbush has been at his best, which tells me that once again the coaches at Notre Dame are saying, "This is the offense we want and it's up the QB to adjust and play to our offense."
I don't think you can win that way unless you recruit a QB that fits that offense. Notre Dame has recruited run-throw quarterbacks and continues to try to turn them into pure pocket passers who also take off and run.
That's a mistake.
So Brian Kelly has a choice to make, and if he doesn't make it very soon this team is going to underachieve .... again. He has a good defense, a good OL and a very dynamic and athletic quarterback. He needs to either build his offense around Wimbush and have Chip Long tailor his schemes, play designs and play calls to fit what Wimbush does well .... or he needs to stop with the nonsense we saw the first three weeks and make a change at the position.
Asking Wimbush to run this offense the way it is designed is setting him up for failure. I think he has played well in two of the three games they've played, but I can also still recognize that it's not an offense I would run if I had a player like him at quarterback. If Kelly and Long want an offense that is focused on dropping back and throwing they need to make a change.
In the four offenses that Long was a part of before coming to Notre Dame his team's averaged 493 pass attempts and 3,779 pass yards a season. If that's what he wants then he needs to make a change at quarterback. I personally think making the change would be a mistake, because I don't think Notre Dame has the personnel to run that kind of offense, but if that's what he wants he needs to dive in head first.
If this offense is going to be committed to Wimbush as its quarterback then the offense needs to be tailored to Wimbush because right now it isn't ... not even close. At this point Wimbush and Book are both being put in bad spots, and neither are being put in position to maximize their skills, and that's wasting everyone's time.
The way things are going the offense is going to continue to sputter most weeks, the quarterback will get all the blame and eventually they will lose a game or two and they will make a change, blame Wimbush for not executing an offense he shouldn't be asked to execute, and we'll see 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2016 repeat itself in regards to quarterback play and offense. They'll throw more, probably score more, but a big question remains about whether or not that means they will win more.
Been on my mind all day and wanted to get my thoughts out there.
I've been going round and round with people the last few months about Brandon Wimbush and whether or not he should be the QB at Notre Dame. One thing I've never argued is that Wimbush has played like a championship quarterback with any consistency. No one can honestly say that. Yes, he has flashed that, and I believe if Wimbush plays every week like he did against Temple, Michigan State, USC, Wake Forest and to a certain degree Michigan then I think this offense - and this team - can be very good.
But Wimbush hasn't played championship quarterback, and Notre Dame hasn't had anyone play championship level quarterback. But why? Wimbush was a consensus Top 100 recruit that almost set a national completion record and now he can't accurately throw the football? Dayne Crist was a 5-star QB that flamed out. Everett Golson was a talented QB who regressed. Malik Zaire starts off 3-0 and then gets injured and is tossed aside. DeShone Kizer shows tremendous promise and then regresses. Now we are seeing a talented QB in Wimbush not come close to maximizing his potential.
Why?
Why were Notre Dame's three best seasons under Brian Kelly - by far - the season's in which he had the least amount of experience at QB? If you add in the 4-0 finish to the 2010 season you are talking about the three best seasons and one of the best stretches outside of those three seasons and you have no experience at QB.
Why?
A big reason for me is that I don't believe the coaching at the position has been good in the past (Molnar, Sanford) and because big picture this is a team that continues to try to fit its offense around what the decision makers want, not what best fits the team. Why do I say that?
When Crist went down and Rees took over Notre Dame became a defense oriented team that tried to run the football.
When Golson was a RS freshman with no experience Notre Dame became a defense-oriented team that ran the ball and tailored the offense to the things he did well. When he had experience they tried to go back to being a throw it all around the field football team.
When Zaire and Kizer were new starters with no experience they were a running oriented team that stretched the field and tried to play good defense. When Kizer got more experience they became an offense that wanted to throw the ball all around the field. They went away from things that Kizer did well and tried to do too much.
When Wimbush was a first-year starter with no experience they were a team that ran the football and built the offense around what he did well.
Think about it. In those seasons - including the finish to 2010 - Notre Dame averaged 216.1 yards per game on the ground and 5.5 yards per rush. The record is 36-7.
In seasons/games with "experienced" quarterback play the offense averaged 158.8 yards per game on the ground and 4.4 yards per rush, and the record is 33-27.
To me it goes back to the desire that when you have experience at QB the coaches at Notre Dame spend too much time trying to build the offense they want as opposed to the offense they should be running that is focused on their best quarterback.
As I break down the first three games I'm seeing this pattern repeat itself. We are seeing a Notre Dame offense that in some ways is rightfully pushing the ball downfield at a much higher rate. Last season Wimbush threw just 64 deep balls (20+ yards past the line), and he completed just 22. This year - through three games - Notre Dame has already thrown 27 deep balls, which puts it on pace for 108 deep throws.
We are seeing Notre Dame ask Wimbush to do a lot more full field reads, and to make a lot more pre and post snap decisions than we saw last year in games where he really thrived. In those games we saw more half-field reads, we saw him throw more play-action or dropback throws that were one-on-one situations. And the offense was built around his ability to run the football.
All offseason Notre Dame seemed to focus the vast, vast majority of its practice time on making Wimbush a pocket passer. As I evaluate the play-calling from the first three games I see an offense that is built for a pro-style quarterback, which isn't what Wimbush is. They are throwing in designed runs, but Wimbush looks far less comfortable running this year than last year, which was a concern Lou brought up during the spring and fall.
So Notre Dame is sitting here with a 3-0 record but it also has a sputtering offense. Wimbush is going to get all the blame, just like Rees did in 2013, Golson did in 2014 and Kizer did in 2016. But is it really the quarterbacks? I don't think that it is. When the same thing keeps happening every single time it stops being about the QB's and has to be something that we look at say it goes beyond them.
I said in our preseason podcast that one of my biggest concerns is that Notre Dame wouldn't build its offense around Wimbush and instead run the offense it wants regardless of who the QB is. We are seeing that, and for some ridiculous reason they are taking out Wimbush in the red zone and putting in a passer, despite Wimbush leading Notre Dame to its best red zone offense in over a decade last season. We are seeing an offense that schematically doesn't look much like the offense we've seen in games where Wimbush has been at his best, which tells me that once again the coaches at Notre Dame are saying, "This is the offense we want and it's up the QB to adjust and play to our offense."
I don't think you can win that way unless you recruit a QB that fits that offense. Notre Dame has recruited run-throw quarterbacks and continues to try to turn them into pure pocket passers who also take off and run.
That's a mistake.
So Brian Kelly has a choice to make, and if he doesn't make it very soon this team is going to underachieve .... again. He has a good defense, a good OL and a very dynamic and athletic quarterback. He needs to either build his offense around Wimbush and have Chip Long tailor his schemes, play designs and play calls to fit what Wimbush does well .... or he needs to stop with the nonsense we saw the first three weeks and make a change at the position.
Asking Wimbush to run this offense the way it is designed is setting him up for failure. I think he has played well in two of the three games they've played, but I can also still recognize that it's not an offense I would run if I had a player like him at quarterback. If Kelly and Long want an offense that is focused on dropping back and throwing they need to make a change.
In the four offenses that Long was a part of before coming to Notre Dame his team's averaged 493 pass attempts and 3,779 pass yards a season. If that's what he wants then he needs to make a change at quarterback. I personally think making the change would be a mistake, because I don't think Notre Dame has the personnel to run that kind of offense, but if that's what he wants he needs to dive in head first.
If this offense is going to be committed to Wimbush as its quarterback then the offense needs to be tailored to Wimbush because right now it isn't ... not even close. At this point Wimbush and Book are both being put in bad spots, and neither are being put in position to maximize their skills, and that's wasting everyone's time.
The way things are going the offense is going to continue to sputter most weeks, the quarterback will get all the blame and eventually they will lose a game or two and they will make a change, blame Wimbush for not executing an offense he shouldn't be asked to execute, and we'll see 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2016 repeat itself in regards to quarterback play and offense. They'll throw more, probably score more, but a big question remains about whether or not that means they will win more.
Been on my mind all day and wanted to get my thoughts out there.
