Davie Created Controversy, Now Must Deal With It
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
September 9, 2001

Lincoln, Nebraska (UHND.com) - When Bob Davie put Carlyle Holiday into the game in the second and he lead Notre Dame to points when Matt LoVecchio lead the team to negative yards total offense, he created a quarterback controversy at Notre Dame, and now he must address it.  Every fan who was waiting to see Carlyle Holiday play saw a poised young man who has a lot of potential and could be a big play maker for Notre Dame.

Matt LoVecchio struggled to move the team against Nebraska.  That was part offensive play calling and part his own fault.  He missed Javin Hunter when the score was 14-0 when Hunter was open for a touchdown.  He also threw the lob to the sideline to Hunter about five or six times with it nearly getting picked off each time.  Another time he threw downfield badly to Hunter when Givens was wide open with no one around him for 10-15 yards.  To his defense, he did not get much help from upstairs.  By that I mean Kevin Rogers who did not have an offensive game play that could have beaten Troy State.  

Carlyle Holiday came in and moved the team.  He lead the Irish to a field goal.  That field goal could have easily been a touchdown had Holiday gotten off the third and five play off before the play clock expired.  However he did move the team.  He threw and interception in the second half when he failed to locate the safety as well.  He showed that he has big play ability though.  He is a threat to take off from the pocket at any moment for a big run.

Now that Bob Davie has created the controversy, how will he deal with it?  Who will he start against Purdue and how many times will he switch quarterbacks?  My advice to Bob is to pick a starter and stay with him.  Put in the back up when the team is up big, down big, or when the starter is hurt because two quarterback systems rarely work.  Everyone else on offense has to adapt to the different QB every time the quarterback is changed and I don't care if you think all three quarterbacks are the same type, they still have different touch on the ball, different release, different velocity, etc.

The way Bob rotated quarterbacks made little sense to me against Nebraska however.  After Holiday experienced success he took him out.  Then after LoVecchio produced three and outs he kept him in.  If Holiday is moving the offense why not keep him in.

To me, it was clear that Carlyle showed a lot of promise out there and is the answer for Notre Dame at quarterback.  Right now the Irish have no identity on offense.  Why not start Carlyle and become more of an option oriented offense or an offense exactly like Rogers ran at Syracuse when Donovan McNabb was there?

One of Davie's reasons for starting Matt over Carlyle or Jared was because he was poised and had experience.  To me it didn't look like Holiday was rattled at all being down 17 points to Nebraska on the road, in a hostile environment, in front of the biggest crowd he ever played in front of.  Now Davie must give a better reason than because Matt has experience or doesn't get rattled.  

There is also a third QB in the equation that did not get a snap in the game against Nebraska and he is Jared Clark.  Clark has a cannon for an arm and also deserves a chance.  He also has decent running skills and is supposed to be the best passer of the bunch.  Maybe we will see what he has next week, who knows.

Matt did a great job last year and I feel very badly for him because there will be a lot of undue criticism thrown his way this week from Notre Dame fans who want to see Holiday as the starter and he does not deserve that.

What he did last year should not be overlooked.  As a freshman he lead Notre Dame to a BCS bowl bid and fans should be thankful for that.  He stepped in under a lot of pressure and performed very well.  However, it appears as though Carlyle has more upside as the starter and can do more things for the Irish.  When Notre Dame took Nebraska down to the wire last year, how did they do it?  With Arnaz Battle running around a lot.  This year with LoVecchio under center, Notre Dame did not have much success because while LoVecchio has good mobility, he is still not a running quarterback. 

It will be interesting to see what Bob Davie does with the quarterback situation though.  I just hope he makes a decision and sticks with it because I really don't want to see a two headed or three headed monster at quarterback because all three athletes will be constantly looking over their shoulder.  It will also hurt each quarterback's confidence if they are taken out every time they fail.