Notre Dame works out its QB situation smoothly

William DeShazer, Chicago Tribune

Just a week ago, Notre Dame football had itself a minor problem: they had 6 scholarship quarterbacks.  There's not an All-America candidate in the group, so they need depth, but really, you never really need 6 players for one position unless you're using a rotation....a really long rotation.

But, you don't just "get rid of" scholarship athletes because they're no longer wanted.  At least you're not supposed to, and Kelly had already eliminated it as an option.  It's the type of thing ethically ambiguous football factories do, and Notre Dame at least aspires to not be that.

The odd men out were obvious.  Dayne Crist and Tommy Rees obviously are going to battle for the starting job next season, leaving Nate Montana as a senior 3rd string QB at best, and an albatross blocking the development of three younger players with brighter futures at the worst.  Luke Massa was one of those players, but had been shut out of the effusive praise laid out for the other two QBs with four year of eligibility remaining.  Massa and Montant looked like two guys badly in need of a change of plans.

On the surface, Nate Montana transferring to Montana seems like an obvious choice for him...and no, not because of the name.  As a senior, Montana played too poorly to attract interest as an immediate starter (after the transfer of course), and had squandered too much eligibility (two seasons, but I'm not sure on that figure) to attract attention as a developmental project for an FBS program.  At Montana he'll have an opportunity to play right away.  As much as this seems to be in his self interest, Montana walked-on at ND, withdrew when he fell down the depth chart, then returned for one more shot to play at his Dad's Alma mater.  Quite simply, he went through an awful lot, simply for the purpose of being a member of the Fighting Irish.  Giving up on that could not have been easy.

Massa is still a well-regarded QB prospect with all his eligibility left, so transferring seemed like the best option for him, but allegedly he's too fond of the University to leave.  Instead, Massa will transfer to WR, not only removing the bottleneck at QB, but giving the receiving corps something it very much needs: size.  At 6'4", 215 lbs, Massa offers the Irish a big target, which is really lacking at the position outside of Michael Floyd.  TJ Jones and Theo Riddick are both small speed-demons, and John Goodman hasn't established himself as a very physical player.  If Massa takes to the position at all, there's a role for him to fill.

Positional conflicts in college like this often end sadly, where a young athlete's dreams face a potentially fatal blow.  But the Irish managed to not only solve their issue, but with both players looking like they'll make it out OK.  It's hard to know how much of a role Brian Kelly actually had in each player's decision, but the fact that he publicly announced it as a problem last month, only to remove the logjam without any ugly splits, and with an extra scholarship in hand to boot, seems to betray some nifty roster-working by Kelly.  Which is as useful a skill as any.



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