Notre Dame Football: Tommy Rees Is Final Answer at QB

Notre Dame came into the season with a real quarterback controversy on their hands.

They had to choose between Dayne Crist, a senior with all the measurable tools you like to see in a quarterback, and Tommy Rees, a scrappy quarterback who is much less impressive physically, but led the team to a number of wins at the end of last season.

Crist was ultimately chosen and for the most part, everyone understood. Crist is an impressive figure in the pocket and you had to assume that he would figure the intangibles part out.

That's not how it worked out, though. Crist looked horrific in the team's season opener against South Florida and was removed in favor of Rees. Ultimately, the Irish lost the game, but Rees got the offense going.

Rees has yet to look back and you have to think that he will be "the man" from here on out. The team has gotten their record back to a square 2-2 and the offense hasn't looked nearly as anemic as they did with Crist running things.

In many ways, Rees is just what the Irish need, not only at the quarterback position, but in general. For too long, Notre Dame piled great recruiting classes on top of each other with little success on the field to show for it.

They had a ton of five-star high school recruits on campus, but what did they have to show for it other than disappointing finishes?

Rees is everything Notre Dame has not been. Little was expected of him initially and when you look at him, he does not wreak of "big-time athlete." And yet, all he does is win football games.

As a program, they need more scrappers that will fight for every yard and get the very most out of their talent.

I'm certainly not saying that Notre Dame should change they way they recruit to avoid signing highly-ranked players. You need those types of players to get to the top rung of college football.

But they could use more players on their roster like Tommy Rees.