Brian Kelly still confident in Dayne Crist

Notre Dame will scrimmage on Saturday and head full bore into preparation for Miami, its opponent in the Dec. 31 Hyundai Sun Bowl, on Monday. But the question that holds the most intrigue for the Irish -- and the one I hear most from fans -- is who will be quarterbacking this team in 2011.

Dayne Crist was the unquestioned starter this year. But after he blew out his knee, true freshman Tommy Rees went 3-0 as the starter. Then there are freshmen Andrew Hendrix and Luke Massa, who have redshirted this year but could be ready to compete in the spring. Head coach Brian Kelly was asked on Friday if the quarterback situation for 2011 was murky, but he chose to look at it a different way.

"I think we have a lot of players we believe we can develop into being frontline quarterbacks," he said. "We clearly have a number of quarterbacks who will be competitive, and that's exciting for me."

Of course, Crist first needs to get healthy before he can re-enter the equation. Kelly said Crist dealt with an infection in his repaired knee that set back his rehabilitation process about a week to 10 days but that otherwise he should be fine by the time the season starts. Kelly stopped short of naming Crist the starter next year but indicated that he may be tough to beat out.

"If he comes back physically able to compete at the highest level, he's got obviously a great deal of experience," Kelly said. "There was a lot of time we spent together, a lot of information he's been able to digest in his first year as a starter. As long as he's physically able to come back -- and I believe he will; he's a tough kid, now -- he's got a great amount of experience that will serve him well."

Kelly said he thought Crist had some mental hurdles to get over last year while rehabbing another knee injury. Crist had to deal with wearing a knee brace and having confidence on it. This time around, Kelly said "there's a different look in his eye. He's like, 'Coach, I will get through this and be stronger because of it.'"

In the meantime, Rees still is the starter and will likely be under fire from Miami's athletic, aggressive defense. Kelly said it will be crucial for Rees to get rid of the ball quickly out of the shotgun, something he has done extremely well in his three starts.

Time will tell if this is the beginning of the Rees era or merely an interruption of Crist's starting career.

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