After being a highly talked about recruit last year, Gunner Kiel found himself buried as the fourth string quarterback during Notre Dame's great season. Therefore, it really should be no surprise that he announced he was leaving Notre Dame earlier this month. Yet, I cannot believe the amount of articles I have seen saying he is afraid of competition. That is really unfair to the young man.
Let's just look at this practically. When he came to South Bend last year, he saw a situation that looked promising for him. He saw two juniors in Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix who would only be there two more seasons and really only affecting one year of his eligibility. The X-factor was Everett Golson who was the quarterback who had no prior game experience. Because of that, Golson lost no eligibility his freshman year.
Kiel entered a situation that nobody could foresee happening the way it did. He had no idea that Golson would overtake both Rees and Hendrix and progress the way he did. Now Kiel is in a situation where Golson will be there for three more years barring any unforeseen circumstances. In the event Golson goes down, the team is very confident Rees can come in and the team won't miss a beat.
Therefore, it really isn't an issue of being afraid to compete. It is a matter of being buried on the depth chart and having to wait a long time when he has a chance to compete right away for a starting job at another school. What did anybody really expect him to do?
I wish him nothing but the best.
In Other News:
The basketball team upset #12 Marquette in the Big East Tournament 73-65. Pat Connaughton led the way with 18 points. Next up is Louisville as the Irish bid to win the Big East in their final year in the conference before joining the ACC.
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