Daily Domer: Crist Out, Floyd Back

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Crist will come again ... in four to six months.

Notre Dame learned the fates of both back-up quarterback Dayne Crist and wide receiver Michael Floyd on Monday and the results were mixed.

Crist, a sophomore who went down in the fourth quarter of Notre Dame's 40-14 win against Washington State, learned on Monday that he had torn the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee. Floyd, who broke his left collarbone against Michigan State in the season's third game, was cleared to play.

On Tuesday, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis confirmed that Crist, who had an MRI on Monday, had torn his ACL and that he would have surgery on Friday. Weis said that the Irish staff consulted "the guru in Alabama" (Dr. James Andrews) and that the prognosis was for a four-to-six month rehab. That likely keeps Crist out of spring football.

"I know one thing," Weis said, concerning Crist's return. "We'll be conservative."

As for Floyd, a CAT-scan on Monday convinced doctors that he should be cleared to play. Weis reported that Floyd was "hootin' and hollerin'" (suddenly No. 7 is Slim Pickens in "Blazing Saddles?") at the news and was in no mood to keep it to himself.

"No. 7 [Jimmy Clausen] texted me a few minutes later," Weis reported. "I think No. 7 might have been as happy as No. 3 [Floyd]."

What this all means is that the nation's most potent passing attack outside the state of Texas (take your pick) will be at full strength for the first time since Ann Arbor. You will recall that Floyd started against Michigan State but that he'd just received 15 stitches in his right knee seven days earlier.

And while Clausen himself still has vestigial turf toe troubles, this Irish offense is more lethal than before. That's because Golden Tate has taken his mojo to a previously unrealized plateau in Floyd's absence the past six weeks.

Asked if Tate would have become the rock star that he has in Notre Dame's past five games had Floyd been healthy, Weis replied, "You'd have to lean towards 'No.' "

The facts are these: Floyd caught five touchdown passes in three games for the Irish and at the time Weis was asked if he might be the greatest wideout in school history. And in his absence Tate has become a bona fide first team All-American candidate, even a Heisman candidate (SI.com's Gene Menez lists him at No. 3 this week behind Alabama's Mark Ingram and nose tackle Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska).

With Floyd and Tate on the field together, well, Clausen just became a much better quarterback.
As for JC's back-up and successor, prospects are more opaque. One wonders just how quickly Weis did, or will, put the redshirt freshman in touch with his former pupil, Tom Brady, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear last year. Also, does Crist's injury have any impact on the decision Clausen will make in the coming months about declaring for the NFL Draft? If anything, it adds clarity to the prospect of an entire season being forfeited in one play ... and the prospect of diminishing value in the eyes of NFL scouts.

The headache begins for Charlie Weis. This week he will promote Evan Sharpley, the most gifted passer currently teaching ninth grade geography in America, to second-string. Sharpley, a fifth-year senior, is teaching full-time at local Adams High School as he works toward his teaching certificate. According to Weis, he needs to find a way to skip his final period of the day now in order to be back at the Gug in time for film sessions. Perhaps Crist could substitute teach?

Anyway, Sharpley moves to No. 2 while John Goodman, who played both wideout and quarterback at Bishop Dwenger in Fort Wayne (and who recently said that he considers himself a better quarterback than wideout) will move to third string while still taking most of his reps with the receivers. It was Goodman, after all, who caught a beautifully thrown pass from Crist for a 64-yard touchdown Saturday ... the lone TD pass of Crist's career.

One commenter on an Irish message board suggested that Sharpley start against Navy. What's the worst, asked someone whose memory does not extend more than two years, that could happen?

The problem, obviously, is next year. Does Clausen return? If he does the Irish passing attack will be sick. If he does not Weis will, for the second time in four years, break in a new starter who is both an underclassmen and coming off off-season surgery. Sharpley will be gone. Should Clausen go, the Irish quarterback prospects will be a fragile Crist; a possible prodigal son in Nate Montana (who was on the team in '08 and is currently at Pasadena City College, where he is 31-of-88 with two touchdowns and five interceptions; Clausen's completion percentage, 66.9 percent, is higher than Montana's passer rating, 62.29); and verbal commit Andrew Hendrix, a 6-3, four-star recruit out of Cincinnati Moeller High School.

Weis said that when Floyd was cleared to play yesterday, he told his brilliant sophomore that only two votes went into the decision as to when he would play: his and Floyd's. "And you know which way I'm voting," Weis laughed.

If it were to come down to a similar two-vote decision as to whether Clausen stays or goes (and it won't, but if it were to), Weis might want to replace his favorite band (Bon Jovi) with one of his college contemporaries, Chicago. "If you leave me now ..."