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Irish stew Notre Dame QB controversy looks awfully familiar
Updated: Thursday July 19, 2001 2:47 PM
You are the coach of a top-ranked team and you have to pick a quarterback. On one side is the QB who can't miss, the blue-chip, multi-skilled player anointed a future star early on in his high school career. Coaches look at him and see what he can do for their résumés. His path to greatness will be blocked only if he gets hit by a truck while walking to class. On the other side is the quarterback who should miss, the player whose flaws light up like the toes in an athlete's-foot commercial. Coaches look at him and see what he can't do. He can't move his feet, or maybe he can't throw the out to the wide side. But when the game ends, he's the winning quarterback, so how do you sit him? As most college football fans know, the above scenario describes the dilemma Mack Brown faced at Texas last season with Chris Simms and Major Applewhite. And as few fans realize, it also describes the dilemma that Bob Davie will have at Notre Dame with Matt LoVecchio and Carlyle Holiday. How Davie handles it will go a long way toward determining how the Fighting Irish perform with a schedule as daunting as any in the country. First, a review of Texas, where Simms is now firmly established as the Longhorns' starting quarterback. He has been heralded as a sure thing, the football equivalent of George W. winning the Supreme Court's backing, since he arrived in Austin. Only one man stood between Simms and his destiny: Applewhite. All the skinny redhead has ever done at Texas is beat back the doubters and beat the opponent. He's 21-8 as a starter. In 1998, as a redshirt freshman, Applewhite led Texas to a 20-16 upset of Nebraska. In 1999, he was the Big 12 Co-Offensive Player of the Year. Still, all that got Applewhite was a share of the job last season. Brown carved time out of the offense and gave it to Simms, even as the sophomore looked overmatched. In fact, Simms didn't look comfortable until the season was nearly over. When Applewhite sprained a knee ligament against Texas Tech last November, Simms got the ball and finally began to produce. He looked magnificent against Texas A&M, throwing for 383 yards and three touchdowns in a 43-17 rout. The Longhorns belong to Simms now. Applewhite is on the bench. The transition, though rocky at times, is complete. Now, take another look at Notre Dame. Signing Holiday a year and a half ago meant a great deal to the Irish. For one thing, after C.J. Leak shunned Notre Dame for Wake Forest in 1999, Holiday proved that Davie could sign a quarterback everyone wanted. For another, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Holiday has all the skills offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers had nurtured in Marvin Graves and Donovan McNabb at Syracuse in the 1990s. He can run. He can throw. He can throw on the run. A funny thing happened to the Irish as they began to groom Holiday last season. Another freshman quarterback, LoVecchio, took over early last season for the injured Arnaz Battle and the overmatched Gary Godsey and won seven straight games. LoVecchio, like Applewhite, went into the lineup as a freshman but didn't make freshman mistakes. However, when the Irish's own media guide calls him a "surprisingly elusive runner" and says his "best qualities are his intangibles," you understand that the 6-3, 200-pound LoVecchio will be answering doubters as long as Holiday is on the bench. More teams have played two quarterbacks in the last couple of years than ever before. The success Texas and Alabama had with job-sharing in 1999 made me think that the game had changed, that the demands of the spread offense were such that two quarterbacks could split the duties and keep the team together. Brown made similar comments, but in the wake of naming Simms as his starter, the coach said that the incessant questions about Simms and Applewhite had distracted the Longhorns. And that was at Texas, a relative ocean compared to the fishbowl in which Davie coaches. As big a game as the Irish will have when they open the season at Nebraska on Sept. 8, it will be just as interesting to watch the development of the quarterback race in August. LoVecchio will start in Lincoln. How much progress Holiday makes in the weeks to come will determine the size of the controversy in South Bend. In other words, if you liked Texas' QB battle, you'll love Notre Dame's. Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel covers college football for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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