Notre Dame Football: 3 ways to improve from 2017

3. Start a quarterback battle for 2018

The overall stat line for junior quarterback Brandon Wimbush was pretty good, all things considered. But, the one area that consistently lacked was his accuracy and completion percentage. Wimbush completed less than half his passing attempts.

Good news for Kelly is that he has a four-star dual-threat quarterback that already signed with the Irish during the 2017 Early Signing Period in Pine-Richland product Phil Jurkovec. Kelly has already praised Jurkovec quite a bit and it sounds like he could potentially immediately compete for some reps.

Other than Wimbush and Jurkovec, the best option for Notre Dame is rising junior quarterback Ian Book. We saw some up and down performances from Book this year. He played well in wins over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and LSU. But, he looked like a different quarterback in the win over the North Carolina Tar Heels, and not in a good way.

More than likely, it will be a battle between Wimbush and Book, in the preseason, for the starting quarterback role. But, Jurkovec could get a chance to shine if both struggle early in the year. You do lose the 14 rushing touchdowns from Wimbush in 2017 if you decide to go in a different direction.