Brady Quinn was the the MVP of  college football in 2005 and 2006.  Nobody meant more to their teams success.  Take him away, and both of those BCS teams are .500 at best.  He made the big throws, and he was the leader.  When he rose to the occasion, so did the Irish.  SC in ‘05 and Michigan State in ‘06 come to mind.  When he struggled, so did the Irish.  SC in ‘06 and LSU in ‘07 come to mind.  Nobody was the face of a program like Brady Quinn and the Irish could only go as far as he could take them.

In 2008, the Irish have a new face.  His name is Jimmy Clausen (you may have heard of him), and this team belongs to him.  If the Irish were an Armani cologne, Jimmy would be the chisled jawline, and high cheekbones pitching it to ugly people.  Anything good that happens does so because of Jimmy.

Don’t believe me?

The Irish play tough defensively, but good offensive teams will have no problem scoring.  The thought of ND playing a balanced offense is as nightmarish as peeing your pants in public (No, that presentation didn’t go as well as you had hoped).

The Irish have talented running backs, but cannot run the ball.  The offensive line has  more trouble making holes than Ally McBeal (Calista Flockhart) had eating a cheeseburger in the late nineties.

But, the Irish can assault with their passing game.  Jimmy Clausen can sling it to Golden Tate, Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph.  He can do it repeatedly, and without mercy (though Mr. Miyagi wouldn’t be too proud of him)  His right arm is basically a semiautomatic weapon, and his receivers are Kevlar-piercing bullets.

The point is that Jimmy bears the burden of this team just like Brady did.  The team will go as far as he can take it, just like Brady.  I still have a man crush on Brady but he wasn’t perfect.  He didn’t always throw the short and intermediate routes with enough accuracy, and he started some big games so jacked up that I think he refined pure testosterone to a powder and snorted it before the game.  (Come to think of it, maybe he is a better fit for the Cowboys than the Browns.)  Because of this, the big game results of his career were mixed (noted in 1st paragraph).  In other words, as good as Brady was, the Irish might need something superior.

Clausen may be just that.  He already throws a more accurate ball at this point in his career than Brady did.  He’s learning to take what the defense gives him.  His weapons are going to be more explosive than Quinn’s.  Against Carolina, he needs to take another step toward being better than Brady.  Her Loyal Sons has documented how dangerous the North Carolina playmakers are and it looks downright scary.  Clausen is ND’s answer.  The only way for that answer to be right is for Clausen to play like he never has before.  And maybe like Brady never has either.