Notre Dame has a different quarterback situation as it enters its second spring practice under coach Brian Kelly.
The lone similarity would be that Dayne Crist is again limited for spring drills as he recovers from a knee injury.
Crist, who will compete in most of the drills, was essentially the starting quarterback last season by default because of a lack of experience behind him.
But this year, Tommy Rees – who went 4-0 as a starter after replacing the injured Crist – will push for the No. 1 spot. And Andrew Hendrix and Everett Golson will also be in the mix.
While spring practice, which begins this morning and ends with the Blue-Gold game April 16, should feature a lively quarterback competition, don't expect too much to be settled at the position.
"In an ideal world we would like to leave where we know one, two, three because it allows us to set things a little easier on the practice field," Kelly said. "I think we all probably would come to this conclusion; that it's going to be fun to watch, and I'm going to have to reserve judgment on that until we get a better feel.
"I think later in the spring campaign, we may be able to say, hey, this thing is starting to shape up one, two, three, four, five, or this is taking us through camp. I really am not certain on that yet."
The one thing Kelly is certain of his that Hendrix and Golson, who are both better runners than Crist and Rees, can expect to have a physically demanding spring practice.
"We are going to tackle those two kids," Kelly said. "So they will have two jerseys, and one of them will be red and the other one will be a blue jersey because they need to be involved, because they both have the ability to run the football.
"For us to truly talk about a competitive battle and everybody having a chance, I think we have to modify our practices as such to see that end of them so. What you'll see with those guys a little bit more is more of the spread and the read involving the quarterback in that entire offensive scheme of things, where you won't see that obviously with Dayne, and in a very limited fashion because we know that that's not one of Tom's strengths.
So, yes, both of those guys have to be involved, and they have to be at times really tackled for us to get a true evaluation."
