Today, we are going to look at the Notre Dame opponent quarterbacks in the back half of the 2021 schedule. If you missed it, here’s a link to part one from last week:
The Irish are expected to be facing a tough batch of quarterback to begin 2021 but will the last 6 games offer some more latitude?
Game #7 USC
Kedon Slovis, JR
Matt Fink, 6th SR
Miller Moss, FR
Jaxson Dart, FR
Slovis usurped JT Daniels in 2019 when the latter tore his knee up in the opener and USC never looked back as Daniels transferred to Georgia. At times, Slovis has looked tremendous mixed with enough low moments to keep him away from the discussion with the best quarterbacks in the game. You’d expect another jump for Slovis and the potential for him to be the toughest quarterback on the schedule. Quick note that he’s losing both Tyler Vaughns (222 career receptions) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (178 receptions) at receiver heading into next season.
Depth at this position was a huge concern for the Trojans last year. It’s assumed journeyman Matt Fink will come back for a 6th year as he helps to groom a pair of incoming blue-chip prospects who are both on campus for spring football. Both Miller Moss and Jaxson Dart are top 100 prospects from the 2021 cycle.
Game #8 North Carolina
Sam Howell, JR
Jacolby Criswell, SO
Drake Maye, FR
Notre Dame got the best of Sam Howell last year, especially during the second half, but he’ll get another shot at the Irish this fall. Through 2 successful seasons, Howell has thrown for 7,227 yards and 68 touchdowns and should be getting plenty of NFL buzz in what’s anticipated to be his final year in college.
Rising redshirt junior Jace Ruder graduated early and is transferring out of North Carolina. That leaves Jacolby Criswell as the lone backup with experience (extremely limited after his freshman season) while the Heels were able to lock up in-state recruit and near 5-star talent Drake Maye as the future of the program.
Game #9 Navy
Xavier Arline, SO
Tyger Goslin, SR
Perry Olsen, JR
I mean, who the hell knows how this quarterback situation plays out, right? It’s a fool’s errand to try and follow or understand Navy recruiting and the only thing that was clear from 2020 was their offense struggled big time and they used a lot of different quarterbacks. I’m not sure if they found a solution.
In 10 games last year, the Middies scored 30 or more just twice and were held under 10 in half their games, including in each of their final 3 of the season. Among teams that played at least 10 games, only Louisiana-Monroe averaged fewer points per game in 2020.
Game #10 Virginia
Brennan Armstrong, r-JR
Keytaon Thompson, 5th SR
Iraken Armstead, r-FR
Luke Wentz, r-SO
Jay Woolfolk, FR
This past season, the Cavaliers had to move on from long-time quarterback Bryce Perkins and they turned to Brennan Armstrong who had received limited snaps as a backup over 2018-19. Armstrong was mostly mediocre while backup Lindell Stone graduated and is not coming back to Charlottesville.
Armstrong could be pushed by Keytaon Thompson who transferred in last year from Mississippi State but a shoulder injury kept him out of the starting competition in 2020, ultimately forcing him to become a multi-tool offensive weapon who caught 7 passes (3 TD) and carried the ball 39 times with 3 more scores. It’s expected Thompson goes back to focusing on playing quarterback this off-season.
None of the other 3 quarterbacks on the roster are blue-chips so it’s difficult to assess if they could be in the mix for 2021 while rising redshirt sophomore RJ Harvey decided to transfer to UCF.
Game #11 Georgia Tech
Jeff Sims, SO
Jordan Yates, r-SO
Chayden Peery, FR
This looks to be Jeff Sims’ job for the foreseeable future as he started every game in 2020 as a true freshman and backup Tucker Gleason left school as did fellow quarterback James Graham who transferred to Georgia Southern.
Sims offered some flashes but is incredibly inconsistent. He should be able to remain a really good running threat (492 yards, 6 TD) and really needs to work on being a more complete passer. He had some nice moments in wins over Florida State and Louisville and at least cut down on the interceptions following 8 in his first 3 games.
Is he primed for a sophomore leap?
Game #12 Stanford
Jack West, r-JR
Tanner McKee, r-FR
Ari Patu, FR
Davis Mills was the top quarterback from the 2017 class and left for the NFL this off-season after making just 11 career starts at Stanford with 3,464 yards and 18 touchdowns to his name. He started the final 5 games for the Cardinal in 2020 after missing the opener while in quarantine.
Rising redshirt junior Jack West started the 2020 opener and also got one start in 2019, as well. He lost both games while going 28 of 51 for 296 yards with no touchdowns. Hardly numbers that give the Stanford fan a lot of hope.
West should be pushed by Tanner McKee who returned from his 2-year mission in Brazil last April and was working his way back into football mode throughout 2020. As one of the top quarterbacks in the 2018 cycle, McGee could raise Stanford’s ceiling on offense.
For the first time in school history, Stanford has welcomed 2 early enrollees, including freshman quarterback Ari Patu. He’s a lanky dual-threat from Folson, California and a little bit of a different style of quarterback than the Cardinal typically recruit.
Comparison to 2020
Since Notre Dame only played 10 regular season games last year we can’t complete a one-for-one comparison on the quarterbacks for 2021. Upcoming this fall, the only repeat quarterback faced in the second half of the season will be Howell and he’s in consideration as one of the top NFL picks for 2022.
Syracuse’s Rex Culpepper was a tire fire under center against Notre Dame last fall but D.J. Uiagalelei (Clemson) and Phil Jurkovec (Boston College) offered some quality opposition. Either way, the collection of McKenzie Milton, Graham Mertz, Desmond Ridder, Kedon Slovis, and Sam Howell is a potentially very dangerous group of quarterbacks for Notre Dame to defeat in 2021.
Where would you rank Coan on the list of QB’s? At least under Ridder, Howell and Slovis, I would think. Then the next level has questions as to is Milton healthy? Does Mertz progress? Does Sims take a big leap? Probably somewhere 4-5 I would think.
Sneaky tough schedule, no great elite teams, but I think there’s like 8-9 fairly decent opponents out there.
Good assessment of the schedule — ND has the potential and talent to win just about every game, but there are a number of opponents who are at (or almost at) ND’s level.
On the bright side, hopefully there will be a bunch of competitive and exciting ND games next year.
Agree with spider-man that that’s a good description of the schedule. Not one or two elite teams like we are used to but 4 top 25 teams (Wiscon, Cinci, USC, UNC) that we could lose to. 8-4 would not be shocking but could fall anywhere between 8-4 and 12-0 (with the 8-4 being far more likely than 12-0 and the most likely being something like 9-3/10-2 area with competent QB play).
I’d probably put Coan 6th?
Recently, I saw PFF had both Howell and Slovis in their top 10 highest returning graded quarterbacks for 2021. I think Howell was 2nd and Slovis was 10th.