Jimmy Clausen is ready to start Notre Dame career
By Michael Rothstein
January 16, 2026
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – His eyes glared off to the sun slowly setting over the mountains in the distance. It became the focus point for him as yet another reporter asked him questions in November.
Sitting on an elevated slab of concrete in the courtyard of his high school, Oaks Christian, Jimmy Clausen looks different than the last time we saw him.
Gone is the spiked-up, Jimmy Neutron hair, replaced by a closely cut hairstyle that makes him fit in amongst his peers a little easier. So, too, are the championship rings on his fingers – although this could be due to his departure for football practice in a few moments.
This was part of the final days of Clausen in California, as he’s in South Bend now, preparing to start classes as an early enrollee at Notre Dame this week along with cornerback Gary Gray and running back Armando Allen.
Clausen’s last two months had been busy. He won a state championship in football, the first time the California Interscholastic Federation held a state-wide title game. He took home Player of the Year honors at the All-American Bowl in San Antonio and now the beginning of his competition to replace Brady Quinn as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback.
“Every coach says if you’re good enough to play, you’re going to get a chance to compete,” Clausen said. “If I went to any other place, those coaches would say that. (Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis is) saying that to every other kid he’s recruiting right now.
“That’s what every kid wants to hear, that they have a chance to compete, and that’s all I’m asking.”
This is how Notre Dame’s most heralded quarterback recruit since Ron Powlus will enter his career – in a tough competition.
Four candidates will vie for the right to be Quinn’s successor: Clausen, sophomore Evan Sharpley and freshmen Demetrius Jones and Zach Frazer. Weis said spring practice has the potential for excitement and increased interest in part because of the open slot at quarterback.
“If there is anybody that could come in and start as a freshman at quarterback, it is Jimmy Clausen,” said Bill Redell, Clausen’s coach at Oaks Christian and a former Canadian Football League quarterback. “I’m not saying he will, but if anyone can do it, he can.”
This is the type of pressure Clausen is used to. He saw it from his older brothers, Casey and Rick. He also had it from himself – as he was the consensus top prospect in the country entering his senior season and was on a football team with at least nine other Division I players.
But throughout all of this, the 19-year-old Clausen tried to remain a kid. He’d go to Newport Beach or Santa Monica with his friends to hang out and escape the real world closing in around him. Clausen needs those moments because there is so much of his life that has become public.
When he attended Oaks Christian, classmates asked him to sign footballs and helmets and take pictures with them. Sound familiar? Quinn had memorabilia left outside his dorm room almost daily at Notre Dame, awaiting his signature.
“It’s kind of weird and stuff like that, but I’ve got to go through it,” said Clausen, who described the whole scenario as a little surreal.
A lot of it goes back to the way he made his commitment to Notre Dame. It was flashy and extravagant for a high school kid, but it is something Clausen is over. He said it is in the past and “it’s what I wanted, what I did and I moved on.”
It is a confident statement, and that is what Redell says is Clausen’s biggest strength as a quarterback. It also may be his biggest weakness, as the competition he’ll face in college will be a lot stronger now.
“He’s such a competitive kid he doesn’t think he can get beat,” Redell said. “He’s so competitive he may need to rein it in sometimes. I don’t mean it in a cocky way. Joe Kapp didn’t think he could be beat. Jimmy hasn’t yet. He’s 42-0 as a quarterback.
“His greatest strength is that he’s competitive. His greatest weakness is that he needs to tone down the competitiveness.”
Redell’s best example: Clausen in the CIF-Southern Section championship game his sophomore year against Oak Park. Coming out of halftime, Oaks Christian trailed, 21-20. Clausen pulled Redell over on the 10-yard line and told him “Don’t worry coach, I’ll take it from here. We’ll beat them.”
What happened?
Clausen scored three touchdowns, Redell said, and Oaks Christian cruised to a victory.
That is Clausen’s past. This is his present: another freshman in South Bend, trying to adjust to college life, nervous and eager all at the same time.
“I kind of want to get out of high school and move on with everything that is going to be going on,” Clausen said.
“It’s fun and kind of scary looking at it, leaving everything.”
