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Jared Clark: Could the Enigma Become the Star?
UHND.com - Travis Donnelly - Used courtesy of DomerDigest.com
1/5/2002
Now that stability is back in South Bend, Notre
Dame and Ty Willingham can turn their attention
to more important things than coaching rumors
and bad resumes - namely wining football
games.
Ty Willingham brings many new things to the
Fighting Irish football program. Probably the
most noticeable of which will be the long
overdue arrival of a true and legitimate
passing offense. This begs the question - do we
have a QB that can run it?
In August of 2000, three young and highly
touted signal callers arrived in South Bend. A
mature pocket passer named Matt LoVecchio, the
blue chip option QB Carlyle Holiday, and
equally talented but much less definable Jared
Clark.
LoVecchio would be thrust into action as a true
freshman after Arnaz Battle was lost for the
season. LoVecchio got the early nod primarily
because of his poise and maturity. LoVecchio
was a nice QB who would not lose too many games
for you. The problem was, as every Notre Dame
fan saw in the Fiesta Bowl, he couldn't really
win many games for you either. He doesn't
appear to have the arm strength to efficiently
run Wilsie's offense and rumors have leaked out
that he may be eyeing a transfer to Virginia
Tech, where former offensive coordinator Kevin
Rogers is now the QB coach.
Holiday came in with big billing. Tagged as the
second coming of Tony Rice, he watched and
learned when LoVecchio jumped to the forefront.
But after that disastrous Fiesta Bowl
performance, coaches began watching Holiday
much more closely and waiting for the
opportunity to switch the offense yet again and
let the Carlyle show begin. Once Holiday took
over, he showed flashes of what a great option
QB he could be.
The key term here is great OPTION quarterback.
It remains to be seen if Holiday can hone his
passing skills to a point that will be adequate
in Coach Willingham's offense. Here's something
to think about.
Last season Stanford's tandem of Randy Fasani
and Chris Lewis threw for 2,981 yards, 26 TD's,
and 12 interceptions. Matt LoVecchio and
Carlyle Holiday threw for a combined 1,071
yards, 4 TD's, and 11 picks. Ouch.
That brings us full circle to Jared Clark. He
has the best arm of the bunch. He chose Notre
Dame over Miami and Georgia and, to this point,
has been the mystery man of the group. He has
the best size at 6'4" and 215 lbs. It has been
said that he may be the most complete QB of the
bunch and can run and throw equally well.
After two seasons in two very different offenses,
Jared Clark may be the man to shine under
Willingham. Willingham is known as a developer
of QB's. Maybe he is the coach that can take
Clark from unknown to superstar. Come spring,
we'll start getting some answers about Jared
Clark. It should be fun to watch.
This article used courtesy of DomerDigest.com. Click here for more of their articles.
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