Notre Dame Football: 5 reasons Brandon Wimbush has surpassed Kizer

4. Wimbush gets more out of his teammates

Be it his laid-back demeanor or his ability to spark teammates with physical runs, there’s something different about how this team responds to Wimbush opposed to Kizer. The latter tended to play with more fire, but perhaps it is Wimbush’s poise that inspires a newfound confidence in his team.

After all, Kizer’s fire didn’t do much for a team that had one of their worst seasons in the last decade. Of those eight losses, seven of them finished as one possession games. Coincidentally, their one loss of over eight points came against a USC team that will face off against Wimbush this weekend.

Kizer was rarely able to put his team in the position to win last season as his clutch factor clearly declined after his 2015 campaign. His quarterback rating displayed this quite nicely, declining dramatically as games wore on. Much of this derived from the struggles of an under-performing team that had seen too many games go the other way.

Wimbush has had a different effect on his team as they have managed to blow out each team they have faced outside of a tough matchup with Georgia. While the last two points have had more to do with the mental battle opposed to on-the-field attributes, it’s well known that mind over matter applies particularly well on the football field.