Clausen To Start on Saturday

It took all of a week.

Notre Dame named true freshman Jimmy Clausen its starting quarterback on Tuesday, the earliest a rookie will start in the past 57 years.

Clausen, a freshman from Westlake Village, Calif., was the nation’s No. 1 recruit out of high school last year. He beat out sophomore Demetrius Jones and junior Evan Sharpley for the job.

“I think he’s ready to run the offense,” Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis said. “I think he was always ready mentally. It was just his arm wasn’t full go until the end of last week, which is exactly when we thought it would be ready.”

Clausen had surgery in the offseason to take out a bone spur in his right elbow.

-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Drew]

Here's my take on this...

Mr.-1600-on-his-SAT Charle Weis more-or-less pulled a fast one on most of the country.

In my opinion, he has strategically used the Georgia Tech game as a basis for the next four years.

Let me explain:

* He knew all along who is true starter was going to be HOWEVER

* He figured he owed it to the upperclassmen to give them a chance at that starting spot (since practice really doesn't show you what a game situation does - a game situation gives you the end-all truth)

* Junior Jones starts; Jones gets pulled
* Sophomore Sharpley goes in; Sharpley gets pulled
* Freshman Clausen goes in and has a solid last couple minutes (but enough for Weis to think to himself, "He's the man.")

Of course Weis looked back at all the video, just to make sure, before rushing to any decisions... but Weis knew all along... and of course he played to the media today and said, "It was just his arm wasn’t full go until the end of last week." The perfect reason he didn't start the first game, but at the same time, it gave the upperclassmen the shot they deserved.

Very smart.
Very classy.
Very strategic.
Fantastic coach.

Let's hope this all holds true, or I have apparently cooked my goose.