Notre Dame, IN (UHND.com) – Anyone who was hoping to see one quarterback clearly outshine the others vying for the opportunity to replace departed starter Brady Quinn had to be disappointed with what they say at Saturday’s annual Blue-Gold game. Of the four signal callers fighting to be the starting quarterback this fall none did anything to separate themselves from the pack and none of them did anything to bury themselves either.
“None of the four would I say ever played themselves out of contention, and that’s as strong a statement as I can make there.” Weis told the media Saturday. “Normally it has to be somebody separates because they play themselves better. Sometimes it happens because somebody actually plays worse and none of them I would say have played themselves out of the mix.”
All four quarterbacks had their moments Saturday afternoon. Jimmy Clausen showed some nice precision, Demetrius Jones showed his outstanding athleticism, Evan Sharpley showed great command of the offense, and Zach Frazer showed some nice velocity on his passes; but none of them played consistently well enough to make any sound conclusions about where each stands.
Weis limited the passing game this weekend in part to work on the running game, something Notre Dame fans should expect to see plenty of this fall. “I kept the number of passes to a minimum because I wanted them to come out there and run the football,” Weis said of why he limited the number of passes for both teams Saturday. “I think the one thing, one of the main things I wanted to come out here in the spring was establish a toughness on the offense that I think we’ve started to get away from a little bit. That’s why I want to see a heavy dose of running.”
With the limited number of passing plays it was tough for any single quarterback to show much, but all four showed why they were highly sought after quarterbacks and why they are all very much in this race yet.
I’ll start with Jimmy Clausen since he is the most intriguing prospects due to all of the hype. Clausen looked fine out there Saturday. He didn’t set the world on fire and throw the ball all over the field with precision, but he also played very smart football and that is the most important thing that can be taken away from his performance.
Clausen didn’t make any dumb plays that freshman quarterback tend to make. There weren’t any plays where he looked like a freshman. He may have only completed three of seven passes, but of those four incompletions one was a throw away where he didn’t force anything and the other was a prayer thrown up on a fourth and long on the game’s final play. He did show some nice precision on his 12 yard completion to Robby Parris and he had a nice touch on a little flare pass to Armando Allen out of the backfield. One of the passes that Quinn routinely had trouble making was those little flare outs to the running backs so seeing Clausen make that pass with ease was nice to see.
Evan Sharpley came out and moved the ball the best of the four qbs. He had the best command of the offense and showed the best knowledge which is to be expected based on his edge in experience with the playbook. Sharpley had some trouble converting the drives he was putting together into points and got an earful from Lou Holtz for taking a sack on the last play of the first half when he had a tight end wide open.
Sharpley also showed a little bit of a better arm than most people expected to see. He completed five of seven passes but only managed 31 yards on those five completions with 21 of them going to tight end Konrad Reuland. Sharpley did also fumble a handoff exchange that he recovered.
Demetrius Jones showed the speed and athleticism that has had Notre Dame fans excited about for the last year. Jones found a wide open patch of sideline in the second half and ripped off a 31 yard run that got the crowd going. He also was the only quarterback to put the ball in the end zone when he connected with Robby Parris for a second quarter touchdown. Jones’ first touchdown pass at Notre Dame wasn’t pretty with his arm being hit as he released the ball, but Parris made a nice adjustment to catch the under thrown ball.
Like Sharpley, Jones also botched a handoff exchange but the Blue team did not lose possession of the ball. Jones was also picked off by David Bruton in the first quarter with Bruton returning the pick for a touchdown.
Zach Frazer was the only quarterback to not complete a pass and like Jones he threw an interception. Frazer did show that he’s got a pretty good arm though despite missing on all four of his pass attempts.
As of right now, all four quarterbacks are pretty much exactly where everyone thought there were before spring started. Sharpley has the best command of the offense, Clausen is extremely polished for a freshman, Jones has got the ability to make things happen with his feet, and Frazer is somewhere in the middle.
Its tough to tell which two will be elevated into the two man quarterback race that Weis wants to have in place for fall camp at this point and Saturday’s limited passing game probably had as much to do with Weis wanting to work on the running game as much as it did him wanting to keep the race close to the vest.
Weis also likely kept the passing game somewhat limited to keep all four players hungry so that all four continue to improve their game and stay focused before fall camp begins. My very uneducated guess at this point is that the final two will be Sharpley and then either Clausen or Jones. Weis knows that Sharpley is the most steady of the group because he’s been in the system the longest, but both Clausen and Jones have some big time potential.
