Weis not playing favorites in QB competition
SOUTH BEND – It’s been four days, but already the questions center around Jimmy Clausen.
It is inevitable, really. Jimmy Clausen came to Notre Dame with so many expectations and plays a position so glamorous that it can’t help but happen.
So far, though, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis isn’t giving any hints about whether the freshman will inherit the starting quarterback job in the fall. Weis probably doesn’t have much of a clue yet, either.
“He’s made some progress and we’ve seen some encouraging signs, but it is way too early for me to be jumping on anyone’s bandwagon,” Weis said. “He’s done some encouraging things in the first four days.”
Weis is treating all of the quarterbacks like it is their first time in the system. This provides an advantage to the other competitors in the quarterback race: rising sophomores Demetrius Jones and Zach Frazer along with rising junior Evan Sharpley.
All of them have been through at least one season at Notre Dame, so they are familiar with the system’s terminology.
This is where Sharpley has an advantage among the competitors. He went through spring practice last year trying to win the No. 2 quarterback position and spent time listening to Weis speak with former quarterback Brady Quinn the past two seasons.
“If there was anyone who would have a slight advantage through experience, it would be (Sharpley),” Weis said. “Not necessarily the playing time, but he was around me a lot when I was talking to Brady. He’d be right there.
“But that is a plus for Evan, but when it is all said and done, everyone is hearing the same stuff.”
One thing Weis is looking for out of his quarterbacks is whether they can complete all the necessary tasks from play call to snap without incident.
“That’s the first part about being a quarterback,” Weis said. “Being able to take the play call, call it in the huddle, get to the line of scrimmage and just run the operation. (Jimmy Clausen) has handled that part of the operation relatively smoothly.”
Quarterback isn’t only race
Notre Dame has holes it needs to fill throughout its team – potentially nowhere more glaring than wide receiver.
Only David Grimes and John Carlson return from last year’s team that saw any significant passes from Brady Quinn, so Weis is looking to a bunch of inexperienced players to figure out who might fit.
“Some guys are moving up and some guys are actually moving down on a daily basis,” Weis said. “There are some guys who are starting to play themselves, even after four days, are starting to separate themselves a little bit from the pack. It might be separate two from three, three from four or four from five, but they are starting to show separation from people.”
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