Notre Dame Football: Could Irish potentially land D’Eriq King via transfer?

Houston quarterback D’Eriq King will sit out the 2019 season and potentially return to the Cougars, but what about Notre Dame football?

According to reports, Houston starting quarterback D’Eriq King will sit out this season and enter the transfer portal using the redshirt rule. There’s no shortage of programs that would love to have him but one, Notre Dame, can’t.

If you watched the Georgia game, you came away with several conclusions — I know I did. First, the Notre Dame defense was every bit up to the task of standing up to those behemoths along Georgia’s offensive line. Notre Dame is deep and talented up front. They definitely missed Jafar Armstrong due to injury but the defense kept them in the game, but they were missing speedy, dynamic perimeter players, and an elite quarterback.

Senior quarterback Ian Book has grit, moxie and tries hard; all the things you say about a slow, undersized quarterback that has a marginal arm at best. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t have a speed demon at receiver to blow the top off of a defense, but it’s obvious the play-calling is to compensate for the fact that Ian Book doesn’t have the arm to drive the ball down the field.

Here’s a hard truth for Ian Book fans to swallow: If Brandon Wimbush could complete 60 percent of his passes, he’d still be the quarterback for Notre Dame, and Book doesn’t see the field.

His lack of dynamic play making ability was evident against both Clemson and Georgia in the past year. They created an umbrella of sorts around the field and dared the Irish to challenge them deep. Book completed two passes of 15 yards or more against Clemson and four against Georgia (most of those were YAC-padded, however).

Then you begin to think to yourself, who would be a good quarterback for the Irish? It’s easy to fantasy book Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence and Tua Tagovailoa — they’re obvious. Then you ask yourself, who else other than the big three would be a fit? Then you get the news that King is contemplating transferring from Houston. Instantly one thinks, “This is perfect.”

Go all the way back to Brian Kelly’s days at Central Michigan when he had a dual-threat quarterback named Dan LeFevour. His most successful seasons at Notre Dame were with Everett Golson and DeShone Kizer who were both quarterbacks who could get outside the pocket and run.

King is everything Kelly would want in a quarterback. He’s a dynamic play-maker who is equally dangerous with his legs and arms. He’s an accurate passer who can drive the ball downfield. Something the Irish desperately need to get to the next level.

Then reality sets in and you realize that Notre Dame doesn’t accept senior transfers, and King is staying at Houston. Well, coach, I guess you better hit the recruiting trail and get yourself a quarterback.