Notre Dame football recruiting: Strength in numbers at quarterback?

In the last 10 recruiting cycles, Notre Dame three times has signed more than one quarterback in a single class. Coach Bob Davie signed four in 2000, Tyrone Willingham landed two in 2004 and Charlie Weis brought in a pair in 2006. Brian Kelly will likely join that club and - depending on how you look at things - could outdo them. The first-year Notre Dame head football coach, who had just one quarterback on scholarship when he was hired last month, could bring in five in a recruiting class that becomes official on Wednesday, although two of those would be considered multi-position athletes and probably wouldn’t join the QB fray at Notre Dame. Three - early enrollee Tommy Rees, commit Andrew Hendrix and target Luke Massa - are players whose futures will likely stay at QB, according to CBS College Sports Network recruiting analyst Tom Lemming. The other two, Danny Spond of Columbine High in Littleton, Colo., and Derek Roback of Waverly, Ohio, are high school quarterbacks who are tagged “athletes” and could move to other positions, Lemming said. Spond is a former Colorado commit, while Roback is committed to Toledo. All four unsigned/unenrolled players are expected to visit Notre Dame this weekend. “You know what, bring in athletes,” Lemming said. “I say the more the merrier when it comes to athletes.” The 6-foot-2, 232-pound Spond, according to Lemming, is already a good linebacker. And the 6-3, 210-pound Roback is a former national finalist in the Punt, Pass & Kick competition. Even though Spond and Roback are expected to switch positions if they select ND, Kelly is still likely to face questions from those who believe signing more than one QB in a single class is a recruiting no-no. And the detractors will use history to drive home their point. Of those eight quarterbacks who were part of multiple-QB classes at ND, the only one to finish his career as a quarterback and at Notre Dame was Darrin Bragg, a Willingham recruit who was moved to wide receiver, then left ND all together before being coaxed by Weis to come back for his senior year as an emergency QB. And it can be argued that the one who has gone on to the greatest NFL success isn’t even playing quarterback. Abram Elam, who was listed as a DB/QB when he signed, quickly permanently moved to the secondary at Notre Dame, finished his career at Kent State and now plays for the Cleveland Browns. So no, the historical evidence doesn’t support what Kelly is attempting. But this year is no normal year in that Kelly hasn’t exactly inherited a depth chart at the position. “What happened was they made a major mistake in not bringing in anybody last year,” Lemming said. “So they have to rectify the mistake from last year.” It would be hard to fault a quarterback from the 2009 recruiting cycle who looked at Notre Dame and saw greener pastures elsewhere. Evan Sharpley was a fifth-year senior, but Jimmy Clausen had two years of eligibility remaining and Dayne Crist four. That meant that any QB who signed in 2009 would essentially be considered a classmate of Crist, with Crist holding the advantage of having a year in the system after not playing as a freshman in 2008. Clausen posted record-setting numbers last season and bypassed his senior year for a shot at the NFL, and Sharpley’s eligibility was exhausted. Suddenly, Notre Dame’s quarterback meeting room had a lot of empty seats, and even though Crist is considered to have excellent physical and leadership skills, he is coming off November knee surgery and has thrown only 20 career passes. But that’s 20 more passes than any other current Irish quarterback has thrown at the Division 1 level. Since Kelly arrived, walk-on Nate Montana has returned from a semester at Pasadena City College and Rees has enrolled in school. The depth is now better but not enough that Kelly can hang a “no vacancy” sign. Hendrix and Massa would be key. Both are more highly pedigreed, from a recruiting ranking standpoint, than the two current players vying for the backup job. Hendrix has been committed since the summer - though he tried Florida on for size after Weis’ purge. However, the recent offer to Massa didn’t seem to upset him. “I don’t really mind,” Hendrix said in an e-mail. “The more competition, the better. It keeps you on your toes and lets you never get complacent.” The fact that Notre Dame had one freshman QB already on campus and Hendrix on his way certainly didn’t bother Massa, who committed to Cincinnati when Kelly coached there. After Kelly arrived at ND, Steve Specht, Massa’s coach at St. Xavier High in Cincinnati, reached out to the ND staff to let them know Massa was interested, even though the competition within the freshman class looked heavy. Specht, however, has always preached to his players to tackle competition head-on. “Everybody is going to try to recruit better than you. That’s their job to recruit better than you,” Specht said. “It’s your job to keep busting your tail to get better every day, so that the better guys they try to bring in can’t catch you.” And it’s Kelly’s job not to get caught short-handed. In 2008 at Cincinnati, injuries forced him to use five quarterbacks but the Bearcats still won 11 games, finished 27th nationally in passing efficiency and eighth in scoring with an average of 25.8 points per-game. Last year, after starter Tony Pike was injured, backup Zach Collaros started four games, throwing for 1,233 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception. Cincinnati went 12-1, finished second nationally in passing efficiency and ranked fourth in the country with an average of 38.6 points. Hendrix, himself a Cincinnati product from Moeller High, sees there will be competition. He’s just looking for a fair shake. “As long as I will still get the same reps and work done, then bring in as many as we need,” he said. “Anything to help the team out, I am all for.”

Recruiting rumblings

There has been no official word about running back Giovanni Bernard’s status with Irish, but the status of his commitment will likely be cleared up Thursday. Bernard committed to the Irish but last weekend visited North Carolina and also is involved with Oregon State.

ND-Maryland in D.C.?

Reports that Notre Dame may play Maryland for its off-site home game at Fed EX Field in Washington, D.C., in 2011 haven’t engendered any confirmations out of Notre Dame just yet. “We have a lot of conversations going on relative to those games,” said John Heisler, Notre Dame senior associate athletics director for media and broadcast relations. “We are trying to fill the games in ’11 and ’12 right now, working on both of those.” But nothing is finalized with anyone, he said. “We have a lot of conversations, looking at potential places to play, people to play,” he said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into specifics of them until one of these is ready to happen.”