Over the weekend Notre Dame’s exhiled 2012 starting quarterback Everett Golson told reporters in his hometown that he intends on returning to Notre Dame for the 2014 spring semester but that apparently hasn’t stopped Notre Dame from at least pursuing highly touted Texas transfer Connor Brewer according to an Arizona Republic report.
According to the report, Brewer, a former high school All-American who recently received an unconditional release from his scholarship from Texas has reportedly already heard from Notre Dame, Alabama, Stanford Duke, and Tennessee.
Brewer, an Arizona native, was ranked as the #4 quarterback in the 2012 recruiting class by 247 redshirted at Texas this past season and was battling for a backup role with the Longhorns for 2013 in much the same way that Gunner Kiel was battling for a backup position with the Irish before he decided to transfer before spring practice earlier this year.
Early reports indicate that Arizona has the inside track for Brewer because the Wildcats coaching staff features his former high school head coach, Charlie Ragle. Ragle coached both Brewer and Notre Dame transfer Davonte Neal at Chapparel High School in Scottsdale in 2011 before landing a job with Arizona and then being promoted to Tight Ends coach this past December by Wildcats head coach Rich Rodriguez.
How much legit interest Notre Dame has at this point is really unclear. Assuming Notre Dame gets Golson back in January, the Irish would have three quarterbacks on the roster for 2014 in Golson, Malik Zaire, and incoming freshman Deshone Kizer. Should Brewer join the fray, he would have three years of eligibility remaining in a crowded quarterback mix.
Considering Brewer is transferring for greater playing time, it is tough to see Notre Dame as a serious contender for him. Notre Dame will likely have at least three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in January with a combined 9-10 years of eligibility (two for Golson, three or four for Zaire, and four for Kizer).
It is also unclear how Brewer would fit into Notre Dame’s offense considering his style of play would differ from all of the other Notre Dame quarterbacks on the roster. Brewer is more of a pro-style quarterback than the mobile variety quarterback that Brian Kelly prefers for his offense.
Still, the idea of a former 4-star quarterback reportedly being interested in transferring to Notre Dame is enough to make news this time of year – especially considering Notre Dame has already lost one quarterback to transfer in Kiel and another to “poor academic judgement” in Golson.
If anything, Notre Dame is likely just hedging it bets here with Golson’s status still not fully clear despite his public statement that he will return. The University will have the final say in whether or not Golson does indeed return at the end of the day.
Given the level of recruiting that current commitment Deshone Kizer is doing for the Irish, the staff would be wise to not upset the apple cart here either as Kizer has become a great ambassador for this Notre Dame class of 2014 and as evidenced at the Elite 11 finals last week, he posses tremendous upside.
I say NO. We’ve got QB-prospects “on deck” already (one-per-class) and they are BKRKG’s. Connor mary have talent but BK & Co. should devote their energy to PLAYER-DEVELOPMENT. PD is one of the priorities BK mentioned when accepting the challenge of being ND’s head coach. His philosophy of “next-man-in” is the best darn attitude any coach could ever foster in a team. It keeps the starters striving for their optimum and keeps the back-ups ready to contribute.
Last year might have been a fairy-tale year for the Irish. BK is in the process of PROGRAM-DEVELOPMENT so that PLAYER-DEVELOPMENT of NDRKG’s (champions) are developed-from-within. Connor Brewer is likely not the same caliber of NDRKG as the bosses we already have in the system.
HOSSES. ND has HOSSES in our system. (spell-check automatically changed it, last entry – let’s hope not now)
I don’t see ND getting Brewer. He’s a classic drop back passer in the mold of Gunner Kiel but I guess you can never have enough QB’s especially at ND.
Go after him. Who really knows what the end result with Golson will be.