Who is Brandon Wimbush now and what could it mean for Notre Dame on Saturday night? | Our Lady Insider Football

"The quarterback who takes the reps for us is a guy who you think is of quality," said Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly at Wimbush Thursday after training. "He's 12-3 (in) for a reason."

Kelly would not say for sure that career debut # 16 – and fourth of this season – would come Saturday night in Senior Night, when # 3 Irishman (9-0) will host a Florida team (4 -5) trying to avoid a bowl-free finish for the first time since 1981.

The Irish ninth-grade coach insisted on Thursday night to qualify No. 1 Ian Book's "Day-to-Day" and "Decisive", although many sources confirmed at the Tribune earlier in the day that the junior was unlikely. play against the Seminoles because of a rib or back injury.

Whoever plays the quarterback – and all other Irish positions against FSU – will wear a green jersey, which Kelly accepted after ND players pushed the idea this week. The Rudy-esque video announcement was made Thursday night via Twitter.

Book, the country's leader in passing percentage (.745) and sixth in pass efficiency (170.0), was injured in the first quarter of a 31-21 win at Northwestern on Saturday night. But he played through that and finished with 399 yards in total attack and three touchdowns. That included 343 yards per height, a career high.

Book has had 1,824 yards and 15 touchdowns in four starts and three relief cameos this season, with four interceptions and 218 rushing yards and four more goals.

After the Northwestern game, he told the media that he was fine, but that the prognosis did not last long.

"We obviously knew that he had been injured during the match," said Kelly, only acknowledging that the nature of the injury was "the upper body" when he was told details, on Thursday evening. "And during later follow-ups on Sunday (we knew) that we were going to have to watch him during the week."

Reading Thursday between the sometimes evasive lines of Kelly, Book has only kept an eye on the practice, rather than actively participate in it.

If Book fails to shoot a "Drue Tranquill" – a medical miracle – Wimbush takes first place for the first time since Vanderbilt's 22-17 survival in Game 3 on September 15th, and the new high pedigree student Phil Jurkovec becomes option # 2.

Wimbush recovered in ND's 45-23 victory at Virginia Tech on Oct. 6, but did not attempt to pass. It's his only action since Kelly installed Book as a new starter for a Wake Forest 56-27 loss on Sept. 22.

In this same game, Jurkovec has seen his only game of the season so far. His fourth-fourth came in two incomplete passes, two transfers to teammate Jahmir Smith, a seven-yard QB draw and two knees in formation to end the game.

"He had a lot of work this week," said Kelly. "If Phil has to play, we can win.

"It's obvious that Phil still has some work to do, but he can handle our offensive – not all the game book. We're not going to send a lost guy.

"He'll be able to handle the offense. He can throw the ball on the ground. It can execute RPOs (run-pass options). He can run a screen game, option. There will be many things to defend if Phil is on the football field. "

But unless the injury virus bites again, Florida State will likely defend Wimbush. And a more confident and refined version, Kelly insists, than the one with 42 passes in 76 passes for a gain of 589 yards and one touchdown with four selections this season. Wimbush also ran 144 yards on 52 runs and a score.

"It was largely to tweak some of the mechanisms and make the sound much louder," Kelly said of Wimbush's behind-the-scenes progress. "Look, to throw the ball accurately, there is a lot of postponement on so many other sports.

"You see the pitchers lose the hitting area, and they make some adjustments during a concealer session, and suddenly, they throw strikes again." I mean, he just needed to do a few things of adjustment / mechanics.He throws the ball very well this week.

The wild card is how Wimbush will face the country's No. 17 race defense.

The nine quarters that started against Florida State this season combined for under-9 yards on 50 runs. Eric Dungey of Syracuse is the only one to have raised more than seven rushing yards among the starters against FSU.

He racked up 33 yards in nine races before being injured in the second quarter of a 30-7 win in Orange on September 15th. His replacement, Tommy DeVito, racked up nine yards in seven races.

The only player to score more than 80 yards this season against the FSU was NC State Reggie Gallaspy Jr.'s running back (106 out of 21 carries) last weekend in a 47-28 win at Wolfpack.

In 2017, Wimbush had 803 yards (12th in the FBS QB), 14 TDs (fifth on the QB) and an average of 5.7 (seventh).

"You're going to see him play a little football," said Kelly, about a different Wimbush game plan than the one with Book running the offensive, "but you do not change much of what What do we do, other than what (Wimbush) has succeeded? You may be able to add a bit of that in what you do.

"But I do not think if you watch us play, you go there," Oh, it's a totally different offense. "

Although Wimbush's career efficiency score is modest at 119.4, nine of the 15 teams he started his career at have career defenses ranked at least 45th. Six of Wimbush's 15 starts were against the top 25 pass effectiveness defensemen, including Michigan on the first day of the season, which ranks first in this category and total defense.

The best team in the book on pass efficiency started against the Northwest last week at # 54 now. The Seminoles rank 64th in this category.

In that part of Michigan, winning a 24-17 victory over ND, Wimbush totaled 229 of ND's 302 total yards. Since then, no opponent of Wolverine has equaled or exceeded 24 points of ND.

"You have to look at this from his point of view," said Kelly of Wimbush. "He had plenty of time to think about not being the starter and what to do. And he worked very hard on the areas where he wants to be better.

"He's an incredible competitor. And if he has the opportunity, he wants to stay the starter. He will come back on everything he did. If he has the opportunity, he will play really well. "

So, Notre Dame still has 1-0 in urging her fans to wear green (Michigan on September 1), but what about the fact that the team is wearing green?

The late coach, Dan Devine, embodied the green in the modern era of Notre Dame football, with his Irish costume wearing green in a 49-19 USC choke on October 22, 1977.

The Irish wore green for the next 41 games and scored a 32-9-1 (.774) mark in the alternative jerseys. Since then, the Irish have a modest score of 8-5 (.615) in green, 4-5 (.444) when you beat Kelly's 4-0 record.

• Kelly said the tight starting point Alizé Mack would play Saturday against the FSU after missing the game in the Northwest after a concussion.

• Linebacker Drue Tranquill is expected to be a deadly player on Saturday by Kelly, having served as a third-place specialist against Northwestern. Tranquill, ND's second tackler this season, had five against the Wildcats, a week after suffering an ankle sprain against the Navy.

"I was determined to play (against Northwestern)," he said earlier this week, "but I did not know if I could do it before Saturday morning."