Notre Dame Football: Why This Could Be the Last Start for QB Tommy Rees

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly put an end to the Irish’s starting quarterback debate—for now, at least—by announcing that current starter Tommy Rees will be the one who leads the offense against Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl.

Just because Rees got the nod for the bowl game, though, doesn’t necessarily guarantee that he’ll be able to hold onto his job in 2012.

After fans got their first real extended look at freshman quarterback Andrew Hendrix in the team’s final game of the season—a 28-14 loss to Stanford—some wondered if Hendrix was actually the right offensive leader for the future.

Kelly added some fuel to the fire by leaving the door open for Hendrix to start in the bowl game with his “anything’s possible” comment after the loss to Stanford. However, after sitting back and evaluating the situation further, the coach decided that it would be best to stick with Rees, who has been the starter since the second game of the season.

Kelly cited Rees’ knowledge of the offense and his familiarity with the receivers as some of the main reasons for keeping him as the starter for now.

The 19-year-old signal-caller is 12-3 as a starter over the past two years, but his uneven play hasn’t exactly won him a ton of supporters among the Notre Dame fanbase.

Even though he only completed 45 percent of his passes against the Cardinal, Hendrix showed the type of spark that Irish fans have been yearning for after watching Rees all year.

You can certainly make an argument that since the bowl game doesn’t mean all that much, Kelly should throw Hendrix into the fire and see what he has to offer. However, all you have to do is take one look at the type of defense that Florida State possesses to realize that might not be the best idea after all.

The Seminoles are tied for ninth in the country with 37 sacks this season. They’ve got an abundance of top-notch pass-rushers, who would love nothing more than to feast on an inexperienced freshman quarterback.

Watching Florida State defenders like Brandon Jenkins and Bjoern Werner tee off on his young quarterback all game probably isn’t something that Kelly wants to have to endure in Orlando.

That’s why the coach made the decision to stick with Rees. However, the fact that he even contemplated going with Hendrix does say something about the 2012 season. Indeed, we’re once again likely going to see a quarterback battle in South Bend this offseason.

Given the growing fan support for Hendrix, it would be in Rees’ best interests to have a big game against Florida State to build some momentum going into 2012.

After this year’s disappointing 8-4 campaign, next season is now setting up to be a big make-or-break year for Kelly and his team. He knows he can’t afford to whiff on his quarterback selection and have another slow start in 2012.

It will be interesting to see how Rees handles the pressure in the bowl game now that he knows he’s got someone breathing down his back.

If he performs poorly early on, and the Irish get down early, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that we could see Hendrix get the nod at some point during the game.

What we do know is that Tommy Rees will be the starter for the Champs Sports Bowl. However, it remains to be seen if it will actually turn out to be his last hurrah as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback.