Tapdancing Crist: ND names starter
Brian Kelly announced that Dayne Crist will be starting at QB over Tommy Rees. Not wholly unexpected, but interesting nonetheless...
EDIT: Stats for those who are curious:
Crist : 174 of 294 (59%), 2033 yards (6.91 YPA) 15 TD / 7 INT.
Rees 100 of 164 (61%), 1106 yards (6.74 YPA) 12 TD / 8 INT.
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:35 PM ^
lets knock his ass out of the game in the first quarter again
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:38 PM ^
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:47 PM ^
I'm not sure but wasn't Crist trying to get into the endzone when he got concussed?
EDIT: Nevermind. He was concussed earlier in that drive and stayed in to finish it off 7 plays later with a 1 yard TD run. Google is my friend.
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:35 PM ^
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:40 PM ^
In fairness, the Tulsa loss was on Rees. Crist was hurt in the 1st quarter.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:02 PM ^
Kelly could have easily called a run up the middle, and then kicked an easy field goal with a kicker who was perfect on the year at that point. It was a 35 yard field goal, not tough for any team but ours. That loss is on Kelly not Rees.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:05 PM ^
Absolutely agree. I'm just saying that as between the two players, Rees played a lot more in the Tulsa game than did Crist.
I will say, though, that as stupid as the play calling was, Rees DID throw that pick.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:23 PM ^
Tulsa loss was on Kelly, plain and simple.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:30 PM ^
"In fairness, the Tulsa loss was on Rees. Crist was hurt in the 1st quarter."
Not so fast my friend it was Brian Kelly who called for the pass to the endzone when a FG wins the game-bad play call by coach.
Hoping Mattison can make Kelly give up on the run by overloading the box and force Crist's arm to beat us.
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:43 PM ^
Some of the harder games (aka us) were with crist, and the team had more time to learn the new system and improve by the time Rees got in. In the grand scheme of things, Crist was the first on the depth chart, he just got injured.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:22 PM ^
i think it was in Urban Meyer's tour this spring where Kelly made the comment that Crist and Rees both won 4 games last year [implying that they're both the same level QB], leaving out the 4 or 5 loses that Crist earned and the 0 or 1 that Rees had ..... it made me think that Crist was his favorite.
which is good for Michigan, as Rees is a better QB.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:36 PM ^
Do you really think that Rees is a better QB than Crist?
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:44 PM ^
yeah! I think that Crist has the physical tools, but doesn't have the mental ability to do it. Rees just appeared to me to be a calm customer in the pocket!
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:01 PM ^
His name is Crist, of crouse ND will pick him over anybody not named Jesus.
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:35 PM ^
Can he see now, or is he still blind from his concussion?
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:37 PM ^
As if that would affect Kelly's decision to play him.
(Seriously, putting Crist back in that game cemented the fact that no son of mine will ever play for that man.)
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:39 PM ^
Yea that was a really bad decision to put the kid in after the concussion. I am in the camp of being more safe (especially concussions and how tricky they can be) with the players and not risking further major injury for the sake of rushing them back in.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:17 PM ^
It's not the HC responsibility to determine if a player is concussed or not, its the training staff's. Do you really think Kelly put Crist back agains the medical staff's recommendation?
Also, Crist was never diagnosed wit a concussion.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:21 PM ^
wow wow wow, you are using waaaaaaay to much common sense in this part of the conversation. Just get a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the show
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:56 PM ^
I'm still trying to figure out why Kelly pulled Rees after his two series to put in Nate Montana for the rest of the half. Kelly can be a very weird gameday coach.
August 23rd, 2011 at 6:34 PM ^
He wanted to run the clock, said Montana was better at that between the 2. I didn't remember Rees being in for more than 1 drive though
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:59 PM ^
My athletic genealogy cemented the fact that no son of mine will ever play for that man. Although he may be able to give Nate Montana a run for his money.
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:38 PM ^
That is interesting to see considering Rees took over towards the end of the year and played well in their bowl game against Miami. Maybe Crist just needed more time to adjust to Kelly's offense and will be better in the long run.
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:45 PM ^
This is not surprising. You can show those stats all you want, Crist is a better QB when healthy and gives them the best chance for a good season.
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:49 PM ^
I giggled a bit when I read this news. Not to underestimate ND, but in no way does the fact that Crist is the starter put any bit of fear in this Wolverine fan.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:28 PM ^
You do realize that with Crist only playing for a half and a drive in his second career start, ND outgained Michigan last year? I'm not saying Crist is Andrew Luck, but I would think he's someone you would be at least a little worried about, especially with your defense.
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^
Which is less suprising: Floyd not being suspended any games or Crist being named starter?
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:54 PM ^
Why does every ND fan tell me that they would have won the game if Crist had played the whole game? Before the 95 yard Cam Gordon derp he was 10/21 for 150 yards 1 TD/ 1 INT. Not exactly dominant, and any QB who couldn't complete 50% of his passes on that defense doesn't scare me one bit.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:13 PM ^
Well, it doesn't make much sense to throw out the 95-yard play - it happened. (Should we also throw out Denard's 87-yard run?) And even before it, 150 yards on 21 attempts is pretty good. Completion percentage is not the only measure of a QB's ability.
In any event, Crist was clearly much better than Nate Montana, who did nothing for nearly twoquarters (other than complete one prayer right before halftime). The ND fans are right that we were fortunate that Crist only played two quarters. But hey, we've had bad luck against ND in the past.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:14 PM ^
Montana was 8/17 for 104 yards. Doesn't seem all too different from Crist, but it was pretty clear that Crist>>Montana.
I know I shouldn't discount the 95 yarder, but ND fans act like Crist was dominate the entire time he played. I was just pointing out that for a large portion of the game he was very average, which is not impressive when you're playing a terrible defense.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:31 PM ^
Montana completed a 40-yard prayer right before halftime. That was the only time ND ever came within striking distance of scoring in the nearly two quarters he was in. Crist was in the game for a similar amount of time and led them to three TDs and a FG, and they were around our 30-yard line when time ran out on them at the end of the game. I think we can safely conclude that he was a much bigger threat.
ND fans are right that it was a bad break for them that Crist was out. It doesn't matter, it's still a win for us.
I don't know why fans are so defensive about acknowledging that their own team catches breaks sometimes. Yes, Illinois fans are correct that the officials blew the Anthony Thomas fumble in 2000. Yes, Spartan fans are correct that it was a break that Stanton got injured in '04. Yes, Wisconsin fans are correct that the ineligible-receiver call on the 2-pointer was a huge break for us. So what? The record books give us wins for all those games. If fans of those teams want to bitch, I've got two words for them: Tough shit.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:06 PM ^
I tell ND fans that injuries (unfortunately) are a part of the game. Irish fans still pounded their chests after the 2005 game, winning 17-10 in spite of the fact that Mike Hart left the game with an ankle injury on his second carry.
And Penn State fans always complain about Lloyd arguing to get that extra second back on the clock in the Henne to Manningham game, completely ignoring the fact that JoePa argued and succeeded in getting 2 seconds back on the clock in the 2nd quarter.
Breaks happen to any team (Unless you're playing in the Rose Bowl and your team is Michigan).
And while I agree the officials blew the Anthony Thomas fumble, they also didn't notice that an Illini defender grabbed his facemask on that same play.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:13 PM ^
On that note, If I cold have the TD back on the QB draw several years back where he neither got into the end zone, nor had the football, I guess that'd change things, wouldn't it?
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:15 PM ^
I guess UM won the 2008 game because how many teams have 43 turnovers in a game?
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:25 PM ^
But that describes a whole lot of Michigan games from 2008-2010.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:45 PM ^
Actually, prior to the injury, Crist was lighting Michigan up. The injury was what changed things. Had he remained healthy, it could have gotten ugly early.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:13 PM ^
crist may not have been good, but he was orders of magnitude better than montana and rees. moreover, once he came back the offense starting scoring points again — something that obviously wasn't going to happen in a million years with montana/rees.
August 23rd, 2011 at 6:58 PM ^
Last years game: ND's offense when Crist was in the game averaged 9.7 yards per play. When Crist was out of the game the offense averaged 3.65 yards per play.
The opposite was true of the defense, when Crist was out of the game UM averaged 9.8 yards per play, with Crist in the game the UM offense averaged 3.8 yards per play.
Those are the numbers that ND fans are using and they're pretty convincing.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:12 PM ^
did you lose because of injuries, or because you were cheated by the officials? I'm losing track . . .
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^
Well last year the game was at ND so...........yeah, it would be the injury
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:12 PM ^
Odd years are "cheated by officials."
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:40 PM ^
Crist plays defense, too?
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:04 PM ^
watching him during the game, thinking he looked scared. I thought that before he got concussed. Did anyone else get that feeling?
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:05 PM ^
What happened with the Hendrix kid? Was he ever competing for playing time.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:11 PM ^
hard to know if there was ever really a competition at all or if kelly was just trying to motivate crist. hendrix and true freshman golson got a lot of reps in the spring, but since fall camp has opened crist and rees have been getting virtual all the snaps with the first team.
kelly has suggested on several occasions, though, that we'll likely see one of hendrix/golson in occasionally in some qb run-oriented packages.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^
I think it really was a 2 person race the whole time, they officially announced it as such within the last week or so. Everett Golson was just as "in the mix" at the start of camp. I really just think Crist and Rees are more proven and ready. I doubt either of the other two (Golson or Hendrix) were seriously considered.
August 23rd, 2011 at 6:55 PM ^
He and Golson are 3rd on the depth chart. It isn't clear if 1 has surpassed the other yet, if the staff thinks he or Golson can help the team win with the more mobile QB package one will play
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:15 PM ^
that the local SportsCenter guy on the Columbus affiliate just pronounced his name Dane Christ.
Insert ND/Catholic joke here.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:47 PM ^
I know Jesus was Jewish, but Catholics are considered Christians, no? Sorry, I guess they should take paint over this . . .
But I apologize if you were offended.