Wimbush Entering Camp As The Guy
Quarterback jobs aren’t won in the offseason, but separation can be created and apparently, that’s exactly what Brandon Wimbush did over the summer.
Despite coming off the bench to lead Notre Dame to a win over LSU in the Citrus Bowl, Ian Book enters training camp for the 2018 season behind the quarterback he relieved on New Year’s Day in Orlando, which Irish head coach Brian Kelly made clear during his press conference previewing the start of training camp on Thursday.
Kelly was firm in the fact that Wimbush comes into camp as the team’s starting quarterback, listing him as 1 and Book as 2 instead of the 1A/1B approach Kelly used following April’s spring game.
“He attacked it in the offseason,” Kelly said of Wimbush. “He attacked his weaknesses. He continued to sharpen his strengths.
“What I love the most about him is that he’s a humble leader. In other words, he took the time to work on the things he needed to work on as well as becoming much more of a vocal leader for us. I would say A-plus in the offseason for Brandon Wimbush. Now, let’s go put the other pieces of our preparation together.”
Kelly talked about the shift in going from a third-string quarterback who didn’t play at all in 2016 to all of a sudden being the starter who is being counted to perform and lead in 2017.
“What I was looking for in this offseason was much more vocal, holding players to a high level of accountability, he didn't have that last year,” Kelly said. “He was kind of trying to figure out himself in a lot of ways, and not that he's got all the answers; he wouldn't tell you that. But I think he clearly has a confidence about him that he lacked at times last year.”
Even before Book’s 14-for-19, 164-yard, two-touchdown performance against LSU, there were times when he looked as good or even better than Wimbush, whose inconsistency was painfully obvious at times. Still, Wimbush’s tantalizing potential has always seemed too great to ignore.
“We know he's a great quarterback and can be the best quarterback in the country,” said Kelly. “You're going to hear us say a lot of great things about him, and we mean it, because he's taken the time to work on his own weaknesses.
It’s obvious Kelly and his staff believe if they can get Wimbush to play at his highest level, the team will respond by elevating their game as well.
“When he's confident, there's nobody that will stop this offense because everybody believes in Brandon Wimbush,” Kelly said firmly. “If he walks out there and he is confident in what he's doing, he has the Larry Bird effect on everybody where everybody raises their play because if Brandon's confident, we've seen what happens when he's a confident player.”
Kelly did make it clear that Book will get his chance to compete for the job after his own positive offseason.
“I think Ian was outstanding, as well,” Kelly said. “I'm not here to kind of give everybody an A-plus, but he had a great summer.
“If there's one word that we're looking for, is consistency of performance in both instances. Sometimes Ian is so good in practice that it's almost hard to beat him, and then we know Brandon had some times last year, I think those are behind us…They both had really good summers. I feel really good about the situation we are in at quarterback to have two guys of that caliber that we know can play winning football for us.”
Wimbush is still going to have to win the job.
“Brandon is going to have to compete,” Kelly said. “He can't sleepwalk through this and he knows that, because Ian deserves the opportunity, too, to compete for the position and they will get that opportunity.”
But Kelly isn't looking for a situation against Michigan in the opener like the one he had in 2016, when the Irish went into the opener at Texas with DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire still locked in competition.
“I don't want to go into the game having to play more than one quarterback,” he said.
True freshman Phil Jurkovec is the team’s #3 quarterback, but there’s a good chance he will see the field this fall in light of a new rule that allows players to compete in up to four games without losing a year of eligibility.
“We are not going to rush him into anything, but…there are going to be more opportunities for Phil to get in there and compete during camp with all eyes on him,” he said. “I really think it's going to be great for him.
“In other words, I think we can continue to work the developmental phase with Phil and we're going to do that within our practice sessions, and then our No. 1 and No. 2 quarterback will be able to continue to get the kind of reps necessary to be sharp going into the first week.”
Just as he made the separation between Wimbush and Book heading into camp clear, Kelly’s denotation of Jurkovec as the #3 means Avery Davis will be spending his time in the wide receiver and running backs meeting rooms and not the quarterbacks’, at least for the foreseeable future.
“I think we've kind of settled that the lion's share of his work will be at that position, so we can really hone in on the things that we want to develop within our offensive package for him…until further notice, you know, he won't be getting much quarterback play. He'll be focusing on what we need from him next year.”