On Monday, I looked at the opposing quarterbacks for the first 6 games next fall. Quick recap, things are looking very enticing for the Irish defense. But that’s not the first time we’ve said that, either. We’re too jaded to know things likely won’t be coming up smelling roses but maybe a new defensive coordinator won’t know any better!

USC

The bad news is that Sam Darnold can play with the Trojans for 3 more seasons after grabbing the starting job in the 4th game this past year. While playing a shortened season he totaled 26 touchdown passes and was consistently accurate–68.1% for the season and no game over his final 11 under 62.5% completions.

The good news is that I’m feeling a sophomore slump coming for Darnold. He’s good, no doubt. But I don’t know if he’s packed with talent to the point where he’s going to keep getting a lot better. That might be some of his performance against Notre Dame talking as he was okay. I’m just seeing a ton of hype heading into the off-season and I don’t think he’s the kind of player who will blossom into a dominant Heisman candidate.

Opening day starter and former 5-star Max Browne will be transferring for his final year of eligibility which leaves freshman Matt Finke (.872) and current commit Jack Sears (.945) as the likely backups.

NC STATE

Dave Doeren caught a break when redshirt junior Ryan Finley transferred from Boise State back in May and was immediately eligible. Through the early portions of the 2016 season it looked like a great move for everyone involved. Then, NC State lost 5 out of their final 7 games as Finley fell apart with only 6 touchdowns to 8 interceptions.

As Irish fans will remember well during the hurricane game, redshirt sophomore Jalen McClendon got some playing time but was relegated for most of the season to a wildcat role. In total, he threw 29 passes to 31 rushes.

It seems like we’ll see the same set up next year. Minus the hurricane.

WAKE FOREST

We saw the Deacons a couple years ago and they’ll head into 2016 with the same set up as their ’14 visit to South Bend–junior John Wolford as the struggling passer and sophomore Kendall Hinton as the running quarterback who never gets to throw the ball. Wolford had an abysmal 5.7 YPA on 280 attempts with 7 touchdowns passes. Hinton got to throw the ball 19 times and gained 125 yards on the ground.

In the event that someone younger gets a shot there are some options including redshirt freshman Kyle Kearns (.867) their top commit from 2015 who played sparingly this past fall. Freshman Jamie Newman (.858) and current commit Taylor Powell (.851) should both be on the roster, as well.

Following #WakeyLeaks perhaps we see an offensive explosion next year for the Demon Deacons!??

MIAMI

We’re still awaiting word on whether Brad Kaaya will declare for the NFL Draft and the recent rumors have him coming back for his senior season. That would seem to make sense as Kaaya hasn’t really ever captured the hype he was given as a freshman. After 3 years and the “future 1st round pick” tag so young in his career he’s been passed by several others on most Big Boards.

Kaaya’s been pretty good in his career (when Jarron Jones isn’t setting up a lovely dinner for one in Miami’s backfield) with 9,686 passing yards, 65 touchdowns, and 24 interceptions. One might argue his utter lack of mobility–an insane negative 383 rushing yards over his career–affects his dynamic ability in college.

Redshirt sophomore Malik Rozier has seen some spot duty over the last couple years and hasn’t impressed. The lightly recruit Evan Shirreffs (.820) will be a redshirt sophomore next year to add depth. If anyone pushes up the depth chart it could be freshman Jack Allison (.925) while N’Kosi Perry (.921) is currently the Hurricanes’ 3rd best commit.

NAVY

Senior Tago Smith’s career ended after he tore his ACL in Navy’s opener while the Middies finished the regular season without senior Will Worth who was injured in the AAC Title Game against Temple. We should note that Worth more or less came out of nowhere to accumulate 1,198 rushing yards and 33 total touchdowns but the Midshipmen’s options at quarterback were a huge reason why Army finally defeated them.

Sophomore Zach Abey threw 2 interceptions against Army although he did slowly get more comfortable and finish with 162 total yards. Navy also has freshman Malcom Perry as the next man in on the depth chart but he’s really small (5-9, 185) for this ultra-physical position.

The Middies will have all off-season to figure things out and sort through a large number of candidates from their large recruiting classes and NAPS pipeline. I wouldn’t be surprised if a new unheard of quarterback took over next year.

STANFORD

Redshirt junor Ryan Burns mostly won the fall camp battle with redshirt sophomore Keller Chryst, although the latter continued to get snaps in the beginning of the year. That is until the Cardinal scored 5 points against Colorado with Burns running the show completely.

Chryst took over from there on out and Stanford won their final 5 games with the quarterback throwing 9 touchdowns with just 1 interception down the stretch.

Should Chryst fall apart during the off-season or get hurt a youth movement might not be a bad idea. The Cardinal have freshman K.J. Costello (.974) and current commit David Mills (.989) ready to make an impact. Having a pair of Top 50 recruits at quarterback is never a bad thing.

Recap

If you read part one examining the quarterbacks in Notre Dame’s first 6 games you may agree that this second half is far, far tougher. Just glancing at things this early I would guess the Irish absolutely have to start no worse than 5-1 before getting into these final 6 games.

If it’s a 4-2 start I doubt Brian Kelly keeps his job.

In terms of experience, the above lists could feature 5 returning starters and a few with All-Conference potential. I don’t think Wake Forest–and to a lesser extent NC State–are much to worry about at quarterback but the odds are better than not that Navy finds someone to run their offense efficiently.

Better win lots of games early.