Notre Dame Football: QB Controversy Will Ensure Mediocre 2012 Campaign for Irish

Coming off of back-to-back mediocre 8-5 seasons, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will once again attempt to become relevant on the national scene under third-year head coach Brian Kelly.

Heading into the 2012 season, the first order of business for Notre Dame should be to end the quarterback controversy that has made headlines this spring.

The Irish have four quarterbacks on the roster that are in the race to win the starting job, although returning starter Tommy Rees and sophomore Andrew Hendrix appear to be in the lead with Everett Golson playing the dark-horse role and Gunner Kiel playing the role of hot-shot freshman.

Rees was named the team's starting quarterback last year after initially losing the starting role to Dayne Crist. After a tumultuous first half against South Florida in the season-opener, Rees took over the reins and never looked back.

Rees experienced mixed results in 2011 and struggled to take care of the ball—playing poorly in losses to Stanford, USC and Florida State.

In all, Rees turned the ball over 19 times in 2011—leaving his role as the team's starter in the air and opening the door for the four-man race the Irish now find themselves in.

Kelly doesn't seem to be concerned that the team hasn't even trimmed down their options and feels comfortable taking the open competition into preseason camp.

As the old saying goes, "If you have two quarterbacks, you don't have any." And with the Irish quarterback controversy a major storyline entering the season, they could be ensuring they are mediocre once again in 2012.

The quarterback position, more than any other, is looked upon to provide leadership for the rest of the offense. By allowing this quarterback controversy to continue, Kelly is setting the team back and not allowing the starter to become the leader of the offense.

Aside from the leadership aspect, Kelly is slowing down the development of the future starter.

All four of the options the Irish have at quarterback have the potential to be great quarterbacks. Even Rees, who struggled enough to be questioned as a returning starter, showed flashes of his potential in games against Maryland, Air Force and Purdue.

However, the most important thing to a quarterback's development is practice, practice, practice. Getting as many reps as possible with the offensive starters is what will develop any of these guys with potential into the star that they can be.

Building a rapport with the wide receivers is crucial to any offense gelling—and with the loss of Michael Floyd, this becomes even more important for the Irish as they will no longer have their biggest threat.

By splitting the reps in practice four ways, the Irish are hampering the development of all four quarterbacks and the overall development of the offense.

The Irish offense could be dangerous with the right man pulling the trigger. They return leading rusher Cierre Woods, and although the loss of the previously mentioned Floyd may hurt the Irish, they return one of the top tight ends in the country in Tyler Eifert. Theo Riddick is also expected to replace Floyd as the team's go-to playmaker.

Kelly is one of the best offensive minds in college football and a respected coach around the country. He knows how to build an explosive offense, but holding an extended quarterback controversy is not the way to go.

Teams like USC, Oklahoma, Michigan and BYU will hold the distinct advantage over Notre Dame by having established leaders at quarterback who get the vast majority of the snaps with the starting unit.

While there is something to be said for ensuring the best guy starts, the Irish are clearly putting themselves in a position to be mediocre once again in 2012.