Brian Kelly and Dayne Crist, Can This Arranged Marriage Work?

Ever since Dayne Crist was recruited by Charlie Weis, he knew that he would have to be patient and wait for his opportunity. Barring any kind of injury to Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame fans would not really get to know Crist until after Clausen left.

That time is now.

There is no doubt that Crist has high expectations to live up to. Not only will he be replacing Clausen, but he will be wearing Brady Quinn's No. 10. In fact, Weis made Crist get permission from Quinn to wear that number. If that isn't pressure, I don't know what is.

If Crist is going to make it three great Irish quarterbacks in a row, he will have to do it by learning a new system that is being implemented by new Head Coach Brian Kelly. Not only does Kelly run a completely different offense than Weis, but also everything about Kelly is just different from Weis.

Weis was known to be very positive with his players and was always encouraging. Kelly on the other hand is just nasty. That is not a put down. It is probably what these players need. All throughout spring, Kelly was very hard on his players especially the offense.

Kelly has to realize that although he did not recruit Crist, that he is his best chance at winning right away. He is the only guy with any kind of game experience at all. Crist definitely showed some positive stuff against Purdue and Washington State last year.

Although Crist and Kelly definitely need each other in order to be successful, this is clearly an arranged marriage. While that does make me nervous in some ways, the last arranged marriage was Weis and Quinn. That worked out alright.

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