Success for Notre Dame football in 2018 starts with finding the right solution at quarterback for the entirety of the regular season.
Notre Dame football has three good options to use as their starting quarterback this fall. Of those three quarterbacks, only two have actual game experience. The Fighting Irish made it through the 2017 campaign with the dual-threat rising senior Brandon Wimbush as the primary starter.
However, rising junior quarterback Ian Book led the way for the Irish to claim a big New Year’s Citrus Bowl victory over the LSU Tigers. He seems like a good choice to take the spot under center for the Notre Dame offense for the next two years, as opposed to Wimbush who departs after the 2018 campaign.
The final option, at least it seems, for Notre Dame and head coach Brian Kelly is the incoming freshman four-star dual-threat quarterback recruit Phil Jurkovec. Kelly seems very high on Jurkovec, and he’ll likely get some playing time this fall, even if he does not win the starting job outright.
There’s a lot at stake for the Irish in 2018. They return one of the best, if not the actual best, defenses in the nation. Nearly all of the production on the defensive side of the ball from 2017 comes back to South Bend, IN, this year. That puts a lot of pressure on the offense to perform.
The offense returns a lot less than the defense. But, there is still a lot of talent coming back, and the nation’s No. 10 ranked recruiting class also provides a boost of skill.
Here’s a look at the case for each of the three best options for the starting quarterback job for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 2018.