Florida State vs. Notre Dame: Fighting Irish Must Ride Tommy Rees to Win vs. FSU

Notre Dame has no excuse to not rely on Tommy Rees to take the majority of snaps at quarterback in the Champs Bowl versus Florida State. Every now and again, they can bring Andrew Hendrix in for a short-yardage situation, but nothing more than that. 

The reason for that is simple. 

This is still Charlie Weis' team. Sure, Brian Kelly has his guys making some impact, but the Fighting Irish offense offense is dominated by Weis' guys. 

Michael Floyd is hands down their best offensive player. The 95 catches for 1,106 yards and eight scores tells you all you need to know about that. After that, Notre Dame has relied on junior Tyler Eifert. He had 713 yards receiving on the season. Theo Riddick had 429 yards. 

The point of this is not to better equip you for a trivia battle with a Notre Dame fan, but to say that a lot of their offense has been reliant on these three players. 

Between Rees and Hendrix, the better quarterback to exploit the advantages that these receivers create is Rees, and it's not close. 

Hendrix is more of a dual threat guy. If you have a 3rd-and-1 and want to run a quarterback draw to get it, he's your man. 

More than that, Hendrix may well be the man next season when Floyd is gone, and Notre Dame runs more of a traditional Kelly offense. That's fine. The different personnel will dictate what the more effective offense is. 

But as far as the game versus Florida State goes, the two-quarterback team that Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune discussed will not give Notre Dame its best chance at success. As a matter of fact, that would give Florida State its best chance at success. 

With Rees, you can absorb the fact that he turns the ball over. The reason is that he's the best man to get the ball to your best players. In any football game, that will be the best chance at success. 

Hendrix would be nothing more than a preview of future seasons. If Notre Dame didn't have the receiving personnel that they have, I would be okay with that. But with elite playmakers on the perimeter, a run-first quarterback will not get the job done.

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