Who will start at QB for Irish?
It is not typical for a head coach to encourage media members to create a quarterback controversy.
But Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly likes to stir the pot. So he spoke with his tongue firmly in cheek this week when asked whether Ian Book was healthy enough to regain the starting quarterback role over Brandon Wimbush.
“Well, who says Ian is the starter?” Kelly said to reporters. “I thought Wimbush was great (against Florida State). I think we start a controversy right now and get this thing rolling so you guys get plenty of stuff to write about for the week. Because you guys will be bored just talking about one guy.”
Challenge accepted.
Book is the more reliable option if healthy, but he was forced to watch from the sidelines last week because of an injury to his ribs. Wimbush stepped into his old role as starter and led the Fighting Irish to a blowout win.
Now comes a difficult test as No. 3 Notre Dame (10-0) prepares to face No. 12 Syracuse (8-2) at Yankee Stadium in New York. The Fighting Irish will need another big day on offense to remain unbeaten against an Orange team that has scored 40-plus points in four games in a row.
After joking about a controversy, Kelly acknowledged later in the week that Book had returned to practice and is expected to start this weekend. But he has played coy in the past, and his insistence that Wimbush has something left in his senior season indicated a possibility that the game will not be Book’s alone.
No matter who takes snaps under center, the Fighting Irish will need to be ready on defense.
“This is a team that we saw in (2016 and has) a lot of similar players from ’16 — they’re just better,” Kelly said. “They’re better on the offensive line, they’re better on the defensive line. The quarterback, obviously, is a veteran player that has seen it all, and a lot of the credit goes to Dino Babers for building the program up to where it is and they deserve to be where they are. And he’s got some good players that have stayed with it.”
