Notre Dame Head coach Brian Kelly stated the obvious at a post Sun Bowl-Pre Signing Letter of Intent Day press conference last Friday. The Irish can only carry, train, develop and get game ready four (4) quarterbacks. Seven are currently on-roster and in school.
Dayne Crist – Senior
Tommy Rees – Sophomore
Andrew Hendrix – Sophomore (RS)
Everett Golson – Freshman
Matthew Mulvey – Senior (WO)
Nate Montana – Senior
Luke Massa – Sophomore (RS)
So any competition, evaluation, development at the quarterback position during spring practice will be with four candidates. Common sense would list the seven quarterbacks in the above depth chart and in 2011 eligibility order.
Mulvey will most likely continue as a walk-on red hat signaler.
How Montana’s status will be resolved is both political and touchy. Conventional wisdom would retain Nate on the roster in his previous walk-on status.
That leaves Luke Massa.
Luke was a verbal commitment to Kelly and the Cincinnati Bearcats. All that changed when Kelly took over the Fighting Irish and offered Massa a scholarship to Notre Dame. During his senior year at Saint Xavier High School in hometown Cincinnati, Massa had a 67% completion rate, 1,800 passing yards and 16 touchdowns. Besides the Bearcats, Massa had offers from Wisconsin, Kentucky, Virginia and then Notre Dame. He was recruited and brought on board as one of those “Right Kind of Guys (RKG)” coach Kelly sought during an initial and short recruiting year way back in 2009-2010.
Without ever watching Luke Massa play football or even practice it is not really fair to evaluate his chances in making what appears to be Kelly’s mental cut. Highlight clips on the internet are exactly those clips of your best performances and are now ancient history.
He is a pro style pocket passer and up to 6’ 4” 215 lbs. from 6” 4” and 175 lbs. in high school.
Scouts gave him a two-star rating and Rival a three-star. Luke was a starting forward on the Xavier basketball team and has good hands.
Rarely does a question about Andrew Hendrix exclude a reference to Luke Massa. Likewise, any inquiry about Luke Massa usually is accompanied by mention of Andrew Hendrix. The only reason we have in choosing Hendrix over Massa is the fact that Kelly pulled Hendrix up to fourth on the depth chart when Crist went down in the Tulsa game. Both are pocket passers and both are similar in build and statue.
It would appear he has two choices. Accept another role at Notre Dame as a RKG or transfer to another school. The most obvious role would be receiver but that position is currently loaded with talent and potential.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out for Luke Massa.
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