Lineman Leaves, Sharpley Starts

Evan Sharpley will be the starting quarterback when the Irish face the USC Trojans this Saturday. There are those who will be pleased to hear this news, but probably no Trojan fans will be among them. Jimmy Clausen, the freshman QB for the Irish, has been struggling this season, and is feeling the pressure after making five starts for Notre Dame this year. He began the season as a backup because his elbow was still recovering from an offseason surgery, and now he is, as Charlie Weis described, “banged up” enough that his slight edge over Sharpley (in the mind of Weis) no longer exists.

There are plenty of statistical data to prove that Sharpley has been the superior quarterback this season. In the few, short times that Sharpley has played in place of Clausen (most recently in the second half of the Boston College game) Sharpley has done more with less time. He has a higher completion percentage, better QB rating score, fewer interceptions and more touchdowns despite a vast disparity in playing time. To Clausen’s credit, he is a frosh, he gets the bulk of the hits with a weak line, and he does have the advantage of having played the full game in Notre Dame’s only win this season. But probably the most telling reason for why the Irish will do better under senior Evan Sharpley is the general change of mood that Sharpley brings into the game whenever he is the quarterback. There aren’t any stats to back up this claim, but you can sense that the other guys on offense respond better to the senior leadership of Evan Sharpley. Clausen is the future of the Notre Dame offense, but a rest at this point might just turn out to be beneficial both for the team, and Jimmy as a player. Weis sometimes does some strange things, but I like this move.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 16, 2007 - Post a comment