The overriding question between now and September 3rd is going to be who will quarterback for the Fighting Irish? The ultimate decision may not be Coach Brian Kelly’s but rather the healing ability of Dayne Crist.
In the past to help sort through serious IRISH injuries Subway Alumni Station has called upon an experienced physical therapist that ends up dealing with the injury and the handiwork of the skilled surgeon.
Alex Brenner has over 15 years of physical therapy experience in the military, private clinics and the U.S. Public Health Service. He is rated as a DPT, Doctor of Physical Therapy.
"I have noticed in many Notre Dame Blogs and articles the consensus on the race for the 2011 QB position will be between Tommy Rees and veteran Dayne Crist. What many of these articles and blogs fail to address is the health of Dayne Crist. Naturally most bloggers and sports analysts are unfamiliar with the consequences of a patellar rupture injury. I am also surprised at the lack of information available concerning the rehabilitation of Crist’s left knee patellar rupture injury that he suffered during the first quarter of the Notre Dame – Tulsa game back in late October of last year. Notre Dame has been very “hush-hush” on his recovery. A patellar rupture injury is a very bad injury, arguably worse than his right knee ACL tear which incidentally he suffered almost exactly one year to the day from his patellar rupture.
Anatomically the patellar tendon is formed from the four quadriceps muscles (hence the name, “quads”) in the anterior thigh and runs from the inferior pole of the knee cap and attaches to the boney prominence on the lower leg (tibia). Patellar ruptures are not typically common in elite younger athletes but are seen more frequently in older athletes trying to compete a high level when their bodies are not quite in shape to do so. What bothers me about this injury is that patellar tendons are quite strong and so for his to fail on him there must have been some predisposing factors or micro trauma that already existed in the knee causing it to be weakened. My educated guess is that he probably returned too quickly from his right ACL reconstruction last year and had to use his left knee to compensate for a not quite 100% right knee.
A patellar rupture does not heal on its own; it has to be surgically reattached to the boney prominence from which it tore. Also, tendons, due to poor vascular supply, heal VERY slowly. It is not uncommon for these injuries to take over a year to heal properly even with a top notch rehabilitation staff which I am sure is in place at Notre Dame.
So now we have a guy with arguably two “bum” knees who will try to go out and compete at a very high level against a younger and healthier Tommy Rees and not to mention three other guys who also will be biting and scratching to be in the mix. As a physical therapist who has worked with athletes with these types of injuries, I just don’t have a “warm and fuzzy” about Crist’s return especially when Brian Kelly’s spread-style offense requires a very mobile QB. Having observed Crist’s play last year on television and first hand at the Michigan game last year, I can say confidently that he doesn’t have great mobility. Throw in two major knee injuries and you now have a QB that will need to rely on staying in the pocket. It is possible that he could be a successful pocket passer; however, I don’t think this is compatible with a Kelly Spread Offense and therefore we will be hard pressed to see him under center next fall. Time will tell."
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