Gunner Kiel's Father Is Right to Think Tommy Rees Should Start over His Son

After sending shock waves through the world of college football recruiting by suddenly de-commiting from LSU and enrolling at Notre Dame on Tuesday, Gunner Kiel, one of the top-rated quarterback prospects of the 2012 class, is now ready to start settling into his new home in South Bend and begin working towards winning the starting quarterback job for the 2012 season. 

After a whirlwind recruiting journey that saw Kiel commit to two different schools—Indiana and LSU—before ultimately ending up with the Irish, the Indiana native is now ready to put it all behind him and start doing what he does best—competing.

The battle for Notre Dame’s starting quarterback job will be one of the key storylines to follow in college football this offseason, as there appears to be four players—Kiel, returning starter Tommy Rees, Andrew Hendrix and Everett Golson, who will all be in the mix.

After winning eight of his twelve starts last year, obviously the job will be Rees’ to lose, but with so much competition it will be interesting to see how the soon-to-be-junior will handle himself during spring practice and fall camp.

Rees wasn’t exactly spectacular in 2011, but he wasn’t exactly Dayne Crist either, as he managed to complete 65 percent of his passes for 2,871 yards and hit 20 touchdown strikes.

Rees already has one vote of confidence to be the starter in 2012, even though it comes from a rather unlikely source.

This week, The Chicago Tribune conducted an interview with Gunner Kiel’s father Kip, in which he talked about his son’s recruitment and what the future holds for him at Notre Dame. 

In the article, Kiel’s father had this to say about Rees and his son squaring off this offseason, “I think Tommy Rees is a pretty good player. I think Tommy Rees is going to start next year, and why wouldn't he? He's done a great job. Tommy has a great record there as a starter. People lose sight of that. That's life as a quarterback at Notre Dame, that's the way it is. Gunner, he's got a lot to learn. He's got two brothers that have went through this and they've told him it's going to be tough. The speed of the game is different.”

Given the somewhat biased perspective he’s speaking from as Kiel’s father, it was good to hear Kip being refreshingly honest about the work his son has to do in South Bend in the coming months.

We’ve seen numerous instances in the past when highly touted quarterbacks step on a campus with big egos and expect things to be handed to them because they were high school superstars. They ultimately end up flaming out because they weren’t ready to put in the work.

Kiel’s father knows you just don’t walk into a locker room like Notre Dame’s and step into an offense like Brian Kelly’s without there being some growing pains.

Kiel’s father realizes that right now Tommy Rees is the best option for Notre Dame because he’s the most experienced option for the Irish.

After consecutive mediocre 8-5 campaigns, coach Brian Kelly knows that 2012 is going to be a “put up or shut up” type of season for the Irish, and he realizes that he can’t afford to throw an inexperienced quarterback into the fire and live with the mistakes he’s going to make.

With a schedule that includes teams like Michigan State, Michigan, Miami, Stanford, BYU, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and USC, there’s just not going to be a lot of room for error next season.

That’s why Kiel’s father knows that Rees is the best option for the team right now.

That doesn’t mean that Gunner Kiel doesn’t have a bright future ahead of him, but it’s a process and it’s going to take time for him to learn and mature as both a football player and just a regular college kid.

That’s not to say that Kiel won't necessarily step out on the practice field and wow coaches with his ability and ultimately win the job for 2012, but until he actually shows that he’s capable of being the starter it should be Tommy Rees who leads the Irish into battle, just like his father said.