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SOUTH BEND – The team’s identity moved on to the NFL and left behind a football program confused on where it stands.
This was the situation at Syracuse in 1999 after the departure of Donovan McNabb, leaving two quarterbacks – Troy Nunes and Madei Williams – to try to replace him. This is the situation at Notre Dame, where three quarterbacks – Demetrius Jones, Evan Sharpley and Jimmy Clausen – are attempting to succeed Brady Quinn.
The situations are similar. Neither team officially announced its starter until the quarterback ran into the huddle for the first game. Neither coach told the new starting quarterback until the beginning of game week.
In both cases, the coach chose not to announce the new starter because he wanted to shield the player from the pressures of being a first-time quarterback – and following a legend.
“It was by far the No. 1 reason you do this,” Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said.
“Why would you want to take somebody, after you had a guy like Brady Quinn starting here for four years, why would you want to anoint somebody a few weeks ago and have them living under the microscope of being the Notre Dame quarterback before they’ve ever even played a down?”
At Syracuse, then-head coach Paul Pasqualoni put a gag order on his team from discussing the quarterback situation to alleviate pressure.
Replacing the legend and establishing themselves in some sort of identity is difficult enough.
“It takes a few games for that offense to regain an identity because I think in so many instances, you lean on the great players to make the big play when you need it,” said former Syracuse wide receiver Pat Woodcock, who was a senior in 1999.
“When that guy is gone, you have to find the next guy who is going to come in and do that and it may not be the quarterback this time.”
This was something Syracuse’s coaching staff stressed to both Nunes and Williams during preseason camp that year. Weis already had that conversation with his offensive leaders – tight end John Carlson, center John Sullivan, running back Travis Thomas – that they’ll have to pick up those roles to take pressure off the quarterback.
Carlson became more vocal. Sullivan picked up the middle linebacker calls.
Thomas is expected to lead a run game that Notre Dame will rely on heavier than at any time in Weis’ previous two years.
“The most important thing when you get into this situation right here is you don’t go into the game expecting the quarterback to have to do it by himself,” Weis said.
“You have to share the wealth. You have to share the blame. You have to share the credit.
“You have to make it a more collaborative effort so you don’t hang the quarterback out to dry. I think that’s very, very, very critical.”
But still, following a legend can be more than a little daunting.
It can boost a quarterback – see USC’s long line of top quarterbacks from Carson Palmer to Matt Leinart to John David Booty – or it could send someone spiraling. How a team handles it, especially when the quarterback is young, is critical.
At Syracuse, the coaches constantly reminded Nunes he didn’t have to live up to the expectations of McNabb even though comparisons would be made. The same message filtered to Notre Dame’s quarterbacks, but even they recognize being the quarterback at Notre Dame has its own standard set.
“Everyone knows how prestigious the quarterback position is,” Jones said. “That’s one thing everyone in the country is going to know. They are going to know who the president of the United States is and they are going to know who the quarterback of Notre Dame is.
“None of the people in the running to be the starter, I definitely don’t think that’s something, you know, we all think about it even though we might not say it or act like it. That’s just how the game goes.”
Weis doesn’t want his quarterbacks comparing themselves to Quinn. He picked Notre Dame out of prickly situations often during his final two years. So no one within the program expects the new starter to do the things Quinn did – at least on the field.
“If those comparisons are thrown out there, they are thrown out there and we’ll have to deal with them,” Sharpley said.
“Personally, I’d like to say I’m better looking than Brady, but that is for all the young teenage girls to decide.”
That Sharpley and Jones spent at least one year with Quinn could help them from making those comparisons. Nunes said it helped him because he spent a year watching McNabb and realized he was a player who couldn’t be duplicated.
This is something Sharpley said all the current quarterbacks recognize.
No matter how successful the new quarterback is, following a legend sets itself up with newer, stiffer challenges.
“It was very, very difficult on those kids because there is only one Donovan McNabb that came down the pike,” then-Syracuse offensive coordinator George Deleone said. “No matter what they did, the offense wasn’t going to be as good, they weren’t going to be as good and I think that was very, very tough.”
That is something, no matter how much they try to downplay it, that one of Notre Dame’s quarterbacks will soon find out.
Notre Dame lost its identity with Brady Quinn. Now, it is up to the new quarterback – or whoever ends up as the team’s leader – to rediscover it.
mrothstein@jg.net
