Jimmy Clausen is hurting. How much? Not sure. What’s wrong? No one’s saying. Surprising? Is it surprising when a seam bursts on a punching bag?
At any rate, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis believes his freshman quarterback is hurting. He believes a languid performance Saturday against Boston College was partly symptomatic of this, so he yanked Clausen after a deflating second-half interception, then watched a “fresh” Evan Sharpley enliven the Irish.
“I didn’t say anything about Jimmy’s injury,” Weis said after the game. “I said he just didn’t look full speed, so I made a switch. These guys are all sore. It’s the seventh game of the season. There’s a lot of guys who are hurt at this stage of the year.”
Thus Weis has a convenient pretext to remove Clausen from harm’s way, to change offensive keys to E-Sharp. The Irish coach said Sunday he had not settled on a starter for the Southern California game Saturday, though he will name one Tuesday.
If Clausen is indeed so beaten up, or Weis even suspects as much, there is no decision. Sharpley should start against the No. 13 Trojans, and the freshman can relinquish the spotlight and preserve his evidently wavering health — the mental and physical variety.
“It’s not like I’m somebody who doesn’t care about people’s feelings,” Weis said Sunday. “But my job isn’t to make people like me. My job is to put us in the best chance of winning.”
Nevertheless, concern for Clausen’s general well-being is the only legitimate out Weis has in a dilemma of his own creation.
By starting the freshman in Week 2, the Irish coach married himself to a long-term solution. In a season of rebuilding — that word has not been redacted from dictionaries outside the Guglielmino Athletics Complex — that meant enduring the inevitable gullies in a first-year starter’s play. No matter how deep they ran.
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It doesn’t mean, however, that each weekend should be a lesson in surviving corporal punishment. Hence Weis’ expedient reason to prescribe a step back.
“Especially at the quarterback position, there is great value from watching,” Weis said. “You can see things happening before they happen, because you don’t have the pressure of being underneath the center and calling the snap count and signaling the motion and all those other things.”
Sharpley deserves consideration as the starter. But not as a savior.
The junior’s pocket sense has improved. But for a missed field goal and a holding penalty, an Irish offense run by Sharpley might have produced 17 points Saturday, a virtual Powerball jackpot for this team.
But Sharpley was 11-for-29 passing against Boston College, 7-for-22 after his first drive.
And if meaningless hypotheticals are the order of the day? Those theoretical 17 points, plus the seven provided by Brian Smith’s interception return for a score, give the Irish 24. Boston College scored 27. So much for revisionist math.
“I’d say [Sharpley was] hot and cold, just like I said after the game,” Weis said. “His escapability on a couple of plays gave us couple of jump-starts. … A couple of times now he’s gone in there and gotten us in the end zone. With that being said, there’s definitely some good, and there’s some not so good.”
A non-pummeled Clausen was, according to Weis, clearly a better option than Sharpley earlier this year. This off-season, elbow surgery won’t impede Clausen’s strength and conditioning. Assuming he is not mentally fricasseed, he’ll continue to digest the offense.
So if he makes corresponding progress in what Weis termed “the biggest off-season he’ll ever have,” what suggests Clausen won’t again be preferable to Sharpley next fall?
Of course, if there is no such separation, the Irish have an embarrassment of riches or an embarrassment, period. It could halt Clausen’s canonization, for sure. But that’s an entirely different issue. One dilemma at a time.
Extra points
Matt Carufel will not return to Notre Dame. The sophomore guard, who returned home to Minnesota last week to mull his future, spoke with Weis on Sunday night and received a scholarship release to Iowa and Minnesota, according to Andy Bischoff, an assistant at the player’s former high school. Carufel had started three straight games in place of the injured Dan Wenger, but he grew disenchanted with the school and was disappointed that he did not win the starting job in the preseason. “They’re disappointed down there,” Bischoff told the Tribune, “but he’s ready to move on.”
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Clausen vs. Sharpley
Experience: Clausen has six starts, Sharpley none. The freshman has felt the pressure. EDGE: Clausen.
Running game: Doesn’t matter who’s managing the game. The Irish can’t run. EDGE: Neither.
Passing game: Both have completion rates in the 50s. But Sharpley seems more apt to deliver the ball downfield, for better or worse. EDGE: Sharpley.
Intangibles: He benefits from the jolt any backup’s appearance gives a team, but right now, Sharpley has that “it” factor. EDGE: Sharpley.
Reliability: Clausen was fine until a couple of inauspicious mistakes against Boston College. EDGE: Sharpley.
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