Notre Dame Football: My Best Advice for Dayne Crist

The first time I saw Dayne Crist was at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio. He was very impressive with his deep throws to Michael Floyd. While watching that game, I couldn't help but wonder where he would be going to college. I was shocked to find out that he had chosen Notre Dame. Jimmy Clausen had just finished his freshman season so it was clear Crist would have to wait to get his chance play.

The good thing for Crist was that he didn't play at all his freshman year so he was able to redshirt. In his second season, Crist was the backup to Clausen. His main contribution was in the Purdue game in which he got significant playing time and contributed to the win. Later that year, Crist suffered a season-ending knee injury while playing in mop-up duty against Washington State.

That injury put Crist's status as the heir apparent to Clausen in jeopardy. Charlie Weis was the coach who recruited him. Crist seemed perfect for the Weis system. Then when Weis was fired and Brian Kelly was hired, Crist would have to go into the spring having to learn a new system and rehab his knee at the same time.

In spite all of the obstacles, Crist was able to win the starting job. The season started with a win against Purdue in which Crist had a decent game. The next game was against Michigan. In that game, Crist went down early with an eye injury. He did return for the second half. He played well and rallied the Irish, but the comeback came up short.

Next up was Michigan State. Crist was phenomenal in this game. Unfortunately, a fake field goal put Notre Dame at 1-2. Crist then struggled against a much better Stanford team.

Crist then led his team to three straight wins against Boston College, Pittsburgh and Western Michigan. He played really well in those games. But, Crist had his worst game against Navy. To be fair, he had a depleted team around him.

Next up was Tulsa where Crist went down very early. In came true freshman Tommy Rees who played really well despite the Irish falling just short. Rees then led the Irish to three straight victories over Utah, Army and USC. Under Rees, the Irish earned a trip to the Sun Bowl to face an old rival in Miami.

A win in that game would pretty much mean that Notre Dame would have to go into spring with Rees as the starter. That win would mean that this freshman would have beaten a ranked team and three of programs whose histories are closely linked to Notre Dame. There is no way Kelly could take him out after that.

Where would that leave Crist?

Unfortunately, he will really be behind the eight ball. Not only will he have to beat out Rees to regain his starting job, but he will also have to contend with young guns Andrew Hendrix and Everett Golson. Kelly is high on both of these guys.

On top of all that Crist still has months of rehab to do before he can even practice. That will make it very difficult for him to regain his starting job.

So what should Crist do?

As much as I would love to see Crist finish at Notre Dame, the best advice I can give him is to transfer. This would be his best bet to still have a really good college career. Right now he has a label of being injury prone and unfortunately perception is reality.

If he transfers he will have to sit out a year. That would be a blessing in disguise as it would give him the chance to really rehab his knee. 

On a personal note, I would love to see him come out here to Hawaii. Since I moved to Hawaii 11 years ago, I have rooted for the Warriors unless they were in conflict with Notre Dame. Bryant Moniz only has one more year of eligibility. That would give Crist a season to rehab and learn the playbook before he took over for Moniz.