I think what Crusader was driving at was that being ND's starting QB is a big deal. And we've made it clear to Phil that we want to groom him for that role, which is a tremendous opportunity for him. It also involves a significant investment on ND's part, in terms of money, time and opportunity cost (ie not recruiting back-up options in case he flakes or gets injured). So it's not unreasonable to expect that Phil recognize the enormity of the role and the size of ND's investment, and signal that his own level of commitment will be appropriate to those things. One obvious way to do that would be for him to set aside other athletic pursuits and focus solely on football.
We're not in a position to "mandate" he do anything right now, and both parties obviously know that. But there's still lots of signalling going on regarding both parties' level of commitment to each other. And if one party starts indicating that the level of commitment is asymmetrical, it's only prudent to take measures to protect against it. For instance, if ND indicated that it was no longer sure that Phil would eventually start for us, by recruiting another QB over him, he'd be perfectly justified in visiting other schools and opening up his recruitment. Similarly, if Phil indicates that he's not all in on football, ND may decide we may need to spread our bets around a little instead of going all in on Phil.
See, if Crusader's response wasn't so heavy handed and was more eloquent like yours, I'm sure there would have been less push back. That said, that doesn't change my stance on the topic. If Phil does want to pursue other sports, I don't think ND needs to feel like he isn't committed to football. There are plenty of very successful college QBs that were two/three sport athletes in high school. It's also true that for every Brady Quinn that meticulously prepares for football, there's a Johnny Manziel that prepares very little and is successful regardless (At the college level at least, the NFL is a whole 'nother animal). Before anyone starts in, I'm not comparing either of those QBs to Jurkovec here. I'm just trying to make a point that focusing all one's free time on football (Especially in high school) does not necessarily guarantee success on the field. It shouldn't indicate a commitment level either, Phil has obviously shown commitment through his attendance to camps and the recruitment process.
From an investment standpoint, ND is always going to be providing more to the student athlete than the student athlete provides in return. ND guarantees a four year scholarship to players that toe the line academically, and the player must stay academically eligible and attend their practices as part of that deal, but there's no guarantee that the student athlete will perform on the field....although at football factories they're completely fine dropping their end of the bargain if the player doesn't meet their qualifications on the field. Players will either find success on the field, or they won't, not every 5 star recruit becomes a household name and plenty of 3 stars achieve legendary status. ND spends tens of thousands of dollars on a student athlete's education, but that doesn't change if the player is a benchwarmer for 4 years. I don't think Phil will be a benchwarmer, but if he never panned out and he had focused on training his senior year, wouldn't he feel a bit cheated? I'd be kicking myself if had given up a final chance at playing basketball my last year of high school, only to ride the pine on the football field in college.
Ultimately, if Phil does play other sports, maybe ND should look at recruiting a backup option, but I honestly wouldn't worry about it. It's not like our QB plans ever work out 100%, there's always some unforeseen hand screwing with our QB development or causing prospects to transfer. It's pretty hard to achieve USC level success where a school just churns out decent QBs on a yearly basis with few, if any, hiccups.
