Article: Crist gets c-plus for first 5 games

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Inside Notre Dame sports with Mark Potash

Notre Dame QB Dayne Crist gets C-plus for first 5 games
By Mark Potashon October 6, 2010 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
It's not easy learning Brian Kelly's spread offense on the fly. But Dayne Crist is getting there.


After five games, Crist ranks 59th among NCAA Division I quarterbacks with a 129.93 passer efficiency rating. He's completed 113-of-194 passes for 1,358 yards, 10 touchdowns and four interceptions. For the record, Michigan's Denard Robinson is fourth (179.97), Michigan State's Kirk Cousins is 13th (164.82) and Stanford's Andrew Luck is 21st (157.54).


Notre Dame offensive coordinator Charley Molnar, who previous quarterbacks under Kelly swear by, gave Crist a C-plus for his early season performance, which sounds about right compared to previous quarterbacks in Kelly's offense.


''The last game [against Boston College] he showed the most understanding [of the offense] of all the games he's played,'' Molnar said. ''Would he like to take some throws back and some decisions back? Sure, he would. But he's definitely made improvement from the first game to the fifth.''Kelly and Molnar are comfortable with Crist's rate of progression and expect him -- and the Notre Dame offense -- to be better in the second half of the season. And there's little reason to doubt them. Crist's performance so far is consistent with the statistical norm for a first-time quarterback in Kelly's offense.


Crist's completion percentage of 58.3, for instance, is the second-lowest for a quarterback in Kelly's offense. The only one lower was Central Michigan's Kent Smith (55.8) in 2004 -- like Crist an inexperienced junior learning the spread offense in Kelly's first year at the school.


But Smith improved as he the season went on. In his first six games, he completed 51.6 percent of his passes and had a 105.10 efficiency rating. In his final five games, he completed 60.8 percent of his passes and had a 137.83 efficiency rating.


And it showed up on the scoreboard. Central Michigan averaged 18.2 points in its first six games, 30.2 points in its final five (26.0 in regulation).


In the spread offense, completion percentage is more an indication of the players' familiarity with the offense than the accuracy of the quarterback's passes. The throws themselves are not difficult. But if Crist thinks Kyle Rudolph is breaking right and he breaks left, it's an incompletion. If he calls the wrong protection and a defender comes clean, more often than not it's an incompletion. If Theo Riddick doesn't know he's the hot receiver, it's an incompletion.


And completion percentage is the key statistic in the spread. Completions lead to first downs and provide the rhythm and pace that make the spread so lethal. It's no coincidence that the two most accurate passers in Kelly's system -- Curt Anes at Grand Valley State in 2001 (69.7 percent) and 2002 (67.1) and Zach Collaros at Cincinnati in 2009 (75.0) were a combined 30-0 as a starter.

 

[nlroma1o]

C+ sounds about right to me. The 4 interceptions in 5 games is what kept him from getting a B. Crist will most certainly have a big second half of the season simply because of our schedule. All i want to see this second half is consistency. By the very least, at the end of the season the offense should have no problems moving the chains. This will make next season truly special.

Go IRISH! Beat Panthers!

 

[IrishinSyria]

A 75% completion percentage would be amazing...

I' think Crist has got to get it to about 65 or so for this offense to really start moving...a little more touch on his short routes and it should get there by the end of the year.

 

[irish1958]

Cincinnati's Zach Calleros is also a very good runner. When the line backers and corners have to pay attention to where the QB is at all times, the Z receiver is often open to an easy catch and potentially a long gain.
The real key to the spread offense is the ability of the QB to pick up yardage when the receivers are covered.
(Think Michigan)

 

[IrishinSyria]

Cincinnati's Zach Calleros is also a very good runner. When the line backers and corners have to pay attention to where the QB is at all times, the Z receiver is often open to an easy catch and potentially a long gain.
The real key to the spread offense is the ability of the QB to pick up yardage when the receivers are covered.
(Think Michigan)

I think there's a lot of truth to this...Crist's TD run against BC helped open the field up for a while.

However, those little screen/flip passes to AA that Kelly sometimes runs serve almost the same purpose...force the linebackers to worry about the backfield and the slot/TE and somebody should come free on just about every play.

 

[Zibby32]

A few key things to keep in mind...1) Crist had no game experience to speak of before the Purdue game...2) New system, it is going to take time for him to be on the same page as the other WRs. I have seen multiple throws being made to receivers who are still running their routes, i product of inexperience for both WR's and the QB.

 

[TDHeysus]

However, those little screen/flip passes to AA that Kelly sometimes runs serve almost the same purpose...

When the QB runs the ball in the spread, it becomes a 'wildcat-on-the-fly' type play. Meaning the offense has the advantage because of the blocking scheme. The offense in essence has one more blocker out there. When a flip pass/play to AA is ran, the offense doesnt have that 'xtra blocker' advantage.

in the spread, when all receivers are covered and the QB starts to run, its the same as if the offense lined up with the RB getting the direct snap. its turns into a 'wildcat-type' of play except the QB is running.

 

[Dizzyphil]

In my opinion, the KEY word in this article is rhythm. If Crist can just get a rhythm going, our offense could be top 10.

Diz

 

[Zibby32]

the point of the spread with a QB run threat is....the defense has to account for the QB, meaning, there will always be a LB, DL, or S assigned to cover him...thats the advantage of the spread, one less guy to block.

right now teams do not have to worry, they can load the box and play man on run downs, because they know that crist wont run. he shouldnt run, if he got hurt the whole season would go down the tubes.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Relax and Read....Relax and Read...Relax and Read. Zen Crist: THAT's who we need to see arrive. If that ever happens, I'll begin to be disappointed when we're ever stopped two in a row with the bunch of weapons and the scheme we have. By the way, in the press conference in which Mike Floyd and Dayne sat side by side and fielded questions, there was zero hint that Floyd was unhappy with anything about Dayne. [Both seemed a bit petrified that they'd say something un-Kellyish, but Floyd was as relaxed as he probably can get--which isn't much]. What Mike said was that it hasn't mattered much where Kelly was lining him up because the opponent is always "rolling" to him, even when he's in the slot. Therefore it's excessive coverage which is limiting his attempts, not anything Dayne is doing. Both of them thought that Riddick's busting out would shortly force defenses to alter that somewhat.

 

[kmoose]

the point of the spread with a QB run threat is....the defense has to account for the QB, meaning, there will always be a LB, DL, or S assigned to cover him...thats the advantage of the spread, one less guy to block.

Actually, the point of the spread is to get space between the defenders, to allow your playmakers the space to make guys miss and break big gains (because the pursuit isn't bunched up close by, they have to cover more ground to get to the ballcarrier). The problem is not that Crist hasn't carried the ball on enough designed runs. The problem is that our tailbacks have not shown much ability to make defenders miss, and then bust a big one. The spread also works best with quick linemen, similar to the original West Coast Offense, in the NFL. ND has been built to support a power running game, so maybe the personnel are not in place, to maximize the spread. But Crist busting a couple of 20+ yard runs is not going to suddenly turn this offense around. We just have to be patient, I guess, even though most of us have been hearing that for a decade or more.