All Signs Point to Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen Entering NFL Draft

This is what you get on Thanksgiving since I am at the hospital with my wife who just had our second kid:  more posts to pass the time. I Need something to pass the time between her sleeping and updates from the doctors.

This is about Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen and on the suffer may seem to not apply here, but it affects Utah since the Utes play the Domers next year in a one and done in front of touchdown Jesus. 

First, is the inevitable that Charlie Weis is nearly all but fired which is now creating a domino effect within the program.  Now it appears that QB Jimmy Clausen is jetting to the NFL as well, and the first clue was when the Clausen family put up and then sold their house this past week.

The next domino is WR Golden Tate who is a draft eligible stud receiver who is the second rated wide receier and 32nd overall prospect according to SB Nation's Mocking The Draft.  The Irish offense was their glue and besides that Clausen and Tate are more then gone the Irish also lose two senior offensive line man who look to be drafted in the NFL:  Center Eric Olsen and tackle Sam Young.

To make matters worse the quarterback situation for the Irish might be up in the air next year because current backup and only rostered scholarship quarterback Dayne Crist tore his ACL.  The injury happened back on Halloween against Washington State in a 40-14 blowout by the Irish. Notre Dame realistically could be looking at starting a true freshman for next season if Crist's knee is not completely healed and the front runner is four star verbal commit Andrew Hendrix.  I am not sure on the rules of enrolling early at Notre Dame, but if Hendrix is able to be on campus in January to compete in spring drills then the quarterback situation might be a little more stable.

Switching back to Utah, former QB Brian Johnson tore his ACL in mid November and while he could have played the following year he would not have been the same player.  The Utes were lucky enough to have a decent backup in Brett Ratliff to take over for Brian Johnson so his knee could fully recover.  Ratliff was an upperclassmen with experience unlike the potential freshman replacement by Notre Dame, and is in the NFL as a backup for the Cleveland Browns.

Utah makes the trip to South Bend 54 weeks after Dayne Crist's injury for the matchup of the second week of November.  It is feasible that Crist will play, but how will the knee hold up.  This Notre Dame will be completely different from the top to bottom with the NFL defections, the impending coaching changes, and do not forget the possibility of transfers that go along with a new coach.