Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish may have got hammered in the BCS National Championship Game this past season, but the future was looking bright for the team with Everett Golson at quarterback. With Golson now gone though, a ton of pressure will be on Tommy Rees to lead Notre Dame to a successful season. I think his chances are quite high of making that happen.
The schedule has a lot of potholes in there where the team could stumble and fall, but I don’t see any reason why the Fighting Irish can’t win at least nine games this season. Rees only threw 59 passes last season and had two touchdowns with two interceptions. He is experienced though and that is a big piece to the puzzle looking ahead for Notre Dame.
If there is going to be success in South Bend this season, Rees needs to put together a season where he throws for over 3,000 yards and has 25-30 touchdown passes.
There are losses due to graduation around the team and that could bring some issues but there is also enough talent still there to make a BCS run. This season will rest on the right shoulder of Rees though. If he doesn’t reach expectations, there will be a lot of very unhappy people.
Rees may only be a junior but he won’t get another chance at being the starter next season if he doesn’t take this team to at least nine wins. There are seven home games on the schedule and there is no reason why they can’t win all of those games. If you add it a road game here and there, there’s nine wins. This is a huge season for Rees and the Irish to say the least.
Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.
