Notre Dame opens next season against a Heisman candidate in Columbus and faces some other interesting opponent quarterbacks during the first half of the season. Today, we look at the last half of the gauntlet which starts off easy but ends with what could be an extremely difficult finale in Los Angeles.
Game #7 UNLV
Cameron Friel, SO 0.8430
Doug Brumfield, r-SO 0.8376
Harrison Bailey, r-SO 0.9555
Jayden Maiava, FR 0.8622
It could’ve been possible that UNLV had 2 former elite blue-chip quarterbacks on their roster when they faced Notre Dame this fall, but fate had other plans. The most famous of the 2 being Tate Martell (0.9739) a former 2017 Ohio State recruit who transferred first to Miami and then last summer to UNLV. He has since moved on from football.
The Rebels also had former 2018 recruit Justin Rogers (0.9772) transfer in from TCU prior to the 2020 season. He was a backup for 2 seasons and hit the Transfer Portal again in late January.
UNLV brought in Tennessee transfer Harrison Bailey this off-season who saw extensive action for the Vols in 2020 before dropping back to 3rd string in 2021. He’ll battle with Doug Brumfield who has played a little bit in each of the past 2 seasons while Cameron Friel started most of the games as a true freshman in 2021 and struggled.
Game #8 Syracuse
Garrett Shrader, r-JR 0.9106
JaCobian Morgan, r-SO 0.8152
Dan Villari, r-SO 0.8464
Justin Lamson, r-FR 0.8552
Syracuse has dealt with some horrendous quarterback play over the past couple seasons, ranking last in the ACC in yards per game since 2020. In 2021, the starting job was won by Mississippi State transfer Garrett Shrader who threw for 1,445 yards, 9 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions.
Former starter-turned-backup Tommy DeVito leaves behind 572 pass attempts for the Orange and transferred to Illinois this off-season. Syracuse also lost 2020 recruit Dillon Markiewicz (0.8255) after he transferred to Texas State in January.
The Orange also welcome Michigan 3rd-string transfer Dan Villari but did not sign a quarterback for the 2022 freshmen class.
Game #9 Clemson
D.J. Uiagalelei, JR 0.9949
Cade Klubnik, FR 0.9951
Hunter Johnson, 6th SR 0.9854
Hunter Helms, r-SO
Billy Wiles, r-FR
DJU’s horrendous 2021 season is still hard to process. From my Heisman hopeful to dead last in the ACC (by a decent margin too) in passer rating was one heck of a turn of events. He looks to be in a somewhat challenging spring practice competition with the Composite 2022 No. 1 quarterback Cade Klubnik right now.
Long-time backup Taisun Phommachanh (0.9156) from the 2019 class entered the Transfer Portal in early December. Clemson gave out scholarships to former walk-ons Hunter Helms and Billy Wiles while former 5-star Hunter Johnson is back at Clemson after an unimpressive stint with Northwestern.
Clemson would have 2021 recruit Bubba Chandler (0.8877) on the roster too but he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and is pursuing a baseball career.
Game #10 Navy
Tai Lavatai, JR
Xavier Arline, JR
Maasai Maynor, SR 0.8064
Christopher Calhoun, FR 0.8003
Karson Lopati, FR 0.7892
Tracking Navy’s football roster and players stashed away at the Naval Academy Prep School is a dark arts that is purposely confounding. Arline came into 2021 with a little bit of experience and won the job. However, he was later replaced by Lavatai.
It should be more of the same for the Middies in 2022.
Game #11 Boston College
Phil Jurkovec, 5th SR 0.9593
Emmett Morehead, r-FR 0.8322
Matthew Rueve, r-SO 0.8227
Peter Delaportas, FR 0.8786
Well, well, well look who’s coming back to South Bend. After leaving Notre Dame following the 2019 season, Phil Jurkovec won the job at Boston College but suffered a set back in 2021 missing 6.5 games with a hand injury. In his absence, Dennis Grosel struggled mightily and has decided not to return for a 6th year of eligibility.
Rising redshirt freshman Emmett Morehead saw some brief action in 2021 while the Eagles signed Peter Delaportas out of Jefferson Township High School.
Game #12 USC
Caleb Williams, SO 0.9969
Miller Moss, r-FR 0.9663
Brendan Costello, r-JR
The bones of this article were written in early January several weeks before Caleb Williams made his decision. He’s been typed into this spot at USC from the very beginning as there was really very little doubt about his landing spot.
So, this game got markedly more difficult than it otherwise might’ve been!
USC had former starter Kedon Slovis transfer to Pitt this off-season while rising sophomore Jaxson Dart also darted off to Ole Miss. They had plans for long-time backup Mo Hasan to come back for a 7th(!) season after missing all of 2021, but he just recently tore his Achilles and his career is likely over. That would be a career including walking on at Syracuse, transferring to a junior college for 2017, spending 2 seasons at Vanderbilt, and the last 2 with USC for Hasan.
The Trojans do have the highly rated Miller Moss as a backup with walk-on Brendan Costello likely to get a scholarship after transferring in from Oklahoma State before 2021 and now sitting 3rd on the depth chart.
The Office “is Hilary Swank hot” debate, but instead “is Phil Jurkovec a good QB”.
Swank a 1st round pick??
But would you do him
I think the problem for Phil is if he’s a 1st round pick, he’s a 1st round pick the way Paxton Lynch was a 1st round pick. NFL teams do love the size and potential but that’s part of the fun of the debate is draft status doesn’t truly answer if Jurkovec is a good QB or not.
From what I can recall look at some analytics, he’s a good runner obviously but he’s gotta improve a lot in throwing the ball. If he makes another leap in throwing this year he’ll be a good QB. If not, then he’ll be decent but inconsistent (making a lot of plays with his legs, but a lot of good and bad with his arm).
Notes from spring ball opening today:
*C’Bo no longer on the team.
*Bracy is staying for 2022.
*Wilkins has been cleared.
*Coogan tore his meniscus
*Jay Ademilola out with shoulder
*Alt at LT, Fisher at RT.
*Correll backed up by Carmody at center.
Guys out for spring:
Davis (knee)
Coogan (meniscus)
Ja. Ademilola (shoulder)
Schrauth (foot)
Berrong (knee)
Patterson (pectoral)
Hart (shoulder)
Big bummer for Coogan, no? Wasn’t he going to get a ton of time at C this spring?
Very interesting Alt at LT. I really thought Fisher would be moved back to LT.
Glad to hear about Bracy.
Injuries are always a “blessing in disguise” for the guys behind them – so that Hart is out will give a ton of opportunity for corners to separate themselves.
Alt at LT is interesting, he was great there and that leaves continuity on the left side. Probably bad news for Spindler, since I’d guess that means Kristofic is pretty locked in at LG now (assuming all goes well with Patterson’s rehab).
So as of now I would say the line to start is shaping up as: Alt-Kristofic-Patterson-Lugg-Fisher.
What are the chances that Spindler knocks Lugg out of RG? Also, Hiestand will want to play the best 5, So depending on what he sees in the spring, could mix things up for the fall.
I guess we’ll see, but I bet it’s lower than probably most might think. Lugg didn’t come back to sit.
I was kind of hoping Fisher would move to LT and Kristofic/Spindler could compete for LG but it looks like they’re happy with what Atl-Kristofic did on the left side and aren’t going to mess with it.
Always think OL is hard to “play the best 5” when you’ve got 5 returning starters. Those guys usually slot into the starting spots and stay there. Going to be tough for Spindler to jump Lugg, to me. Maybe he’ll have a chance to though, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Maybe there’s a split-time situation like what HH did with the RT position a few years ago.
I didn’t get the impression Cam is out all spring, just that he was out today.
I guess Hart had shoulder surgery.
Glad Bracy is back. Outside WR, DB needs the most help.
I hope our defensive back improve a lot over the course of the season, they will need it for the back half.