Of Notre Dame's 11 national championships, 10 had a talented quarterback who was a junior or senior -- leaders such as Joe Montana, Johnny Lujack, Tom Clements and Tony Rice. One had a talented sophomore -- Terry Hanratty in 1966. It seems like Coach Kelly has a tough choice. Crist has thrown 314 passes. Reese has thrown 164. Both are kind of thin in the experience department. Any thoughts on Kelly's choice?
It always help to have veteran QBs but it helps more when you have a talented, veteran QB surrounded by talented veteran team. ACamp hit on defense but these teams were very good on both sides of the ball and had very good coaches.
The '24 team had the 4 Horsemen, a strong supporting cast and a coach named Rockne. The recruiting class of '46 was undefeated and won 3 National Championships. Their coach Frank Leahy had already won an NC in '43 before he went to war in the Pacific. Experience, Johnny Lujack was 23 or 24 when he QB's ND to an ND and a Heisman. Most of those teams were older, experienced guys.
Most of the players on the '66 squad in "The Game of the Century" went on to play in the NFL. But Hanratty wasn't the QB in that game against #2 MSU nor against #10 USC who ND routed 51-0 the next week. Soph Hanratty was the #1 QB and started the MSU but was knocked out in the 1st Quarter. Sophomore Coley O'Brien QB'd the rest of the game and USC the next week. Neither Hanratty nor O'Brien played as freshman. Freshman were ineligible back then. O'Brien was also newly diagnosed diabetic. The trainers fed him candy bars during the MSU game to regulate his blood sugar. Hanratty wasn't the only one knocked out the game. All-American RB didn't play due to an injured shoulder sustained in a fall getting off the train in East Lansing. All-American George Goeddecke like Hanratty went down early in the game and sat it out. Their backups were more than capable. Defensively the Irish D held the #2 team in the nation to 1 yd rushing in the second half. The shutout the next week of USC was ND's 6th in a 10 game season. Beat 4 Top 10 teams shutting out 2 of them. Experience? 16 of ND's guys made somebody's All-American team including 7 that were 1st Team selections.
The '77 team only had 7 AA's with 3 First Team selections. The team included legends Ross Browner, Ken MacAfee, Willie Fry, and Bob Golic. Montana never got AA honors he was only a 50% passer.
The '88 team was also deep on both sides of the ball. Heck, Stonebreaker, Rice, Lyght, Ismail, Bolcar, Alm, Stams. Most of the AA's were on the Defense. 21 of the 22 starters played in the NFL. Rice never did.
Concerned about experience and Crist's 314 attempts and Reese's 164?.
Lujack was out of college in '44 and '45 fighting a war. He was a backup on the '43 NC team.
Hanratty and O'Brien has zero attempts when the '66 season started. Hanratty had a 53% completion rate.
Clements had 162 attempts when the '73 season started.He completed 51% of them.
Montana had 66 attempts before the '77 season completing less than 43% of his passes.
Rice had attempted 35 passes before the '88 season, completing less than 43%.
In the '88 season, Rice only threw 138 times with 50% completion.
For his career Rice threw about 50 more balls than Crist has in, what, one full season of PT. He had less completions in 3 years than Crist has now.
Great talent, great depth, great execution, and great coaching is the formula for ND chamionships.
