Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football and Gunner Kiel: Much Ado About Nothing

Gunner Kiel decommitting from Indiana and visiting Notre Dame Stadium for the USC game has been the big news in the college football recruiting world.  Now, Irish fans are excited in the hopes of landing the elite quarterback.

While the allure of landing Kiel sounds great, the casual observer of Notre Dame recruiting shows a failure to comprehend how depth and the present state of the program affect prospects.  Kiel will not come to Notre Dame, let alone "save" the program.

First, one needs to understand Notre Dame's depth chart at quarterback.  For the foreseeable future, Notre Dame's drop-back quarterback will be Tommy Rees.  He's still young and learning, but Irish fans can see that he's grasping Brian Kelly's system.  Give him a few more games, including the tough night game against USC, and Rees will solidify himself as one of the nation's top signal callers.  Rees has two years of eligibility left.

Next, consider the mobile threat of Andrew Hendrix and Everett Golson.  These two quarterbacks have three years and four years of eligibility left, respectively, and they're the keys to unlocking Brian Kelly's spread offense.  Both quarterbacks are mobile with strong arms.  While Rees has command of a traditional passing offense, Hendrix and Golson will offer defenses another threat with their legs.  The Irish offense will run a completely different style of the spread when they're in command.

Gunner Kiel adds nothing more to mix of quarterbacks Notre Dame has in its stable.  In fact, his lack of experience would be his Achilles' heel on this squad.  While Rees, Hendrix and Golson have been in practice every day for the past year or two, Kiel will be walking in from high school without a single ounce of college experience.  Kiel will be buried on a stacked Notre Dame depth chart.

Kiel will end up at Oklahoma or another top program where the depth chart is thinner, and he'll have the opportunity to be the definitive heir apparent to his predecessor.  Notre Dame can't offer him that opportunity.

No, Irish fans.  You should be looking at 2013's quarterback recruits.  If the Irish take a quarterback in 2012, it won't be a blue-chip prospect.

While Kiel will be at the Notre Dame-USC game this evening, he'll simply be there to take in one of the nation's greatest rivalries.  After all, who wouldn't want to attend the game?