Jimmy Clausen throws shade at Brian Kelly, supports DeShone Kizer
By John Buhler
Former Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen throws massive shade at head coach Brian Kelly for benching starting quarterback DeShone Kizer.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program is a mess in 2016. They were 2-4 entering their Week 7 home game against the Stanford Cardinal and they fired defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder a few weeks ago. Now head coach Brian Kelly is benching starting quarterback DeShone Kizer for throwing two picks against Stanford.
The benching of Kizer did not sit well with former Notre Dame signal caller and NFL veteran quarterback Jimmy Clausen. Clausen would call out Kelly via Twitter urging Kizer to leave South Bend after his junior year for being benched by a coach that doesn’t know what he’s doing.
If I was Kizer I'd want to go in the draft early. Why would I come back with a HC that has no trust in you? Throw 2 ints and get yanked?
— Jimmy Clausen (@JimmyClausen) October 16, 2016
Clausen is currently a free agent. His NFL career beginning in 2010 hasn’t really panned out since leaving Notre Dame. He has been a mid-level backup quarterback with the Carolina Panthers, the Chicago Bears, and the Baltimore Ravens. However, Clausen does seem to have a point. Why would Kizer stick around it he is going to get benched for throwing two interceptions in a rivalry game?
It’s not like Stanford is a bad program, quite the opposite in fact. For the last 10 years, Stanford has been a top-10 program in the Power 5. Until this year, the Cardinal looked like a perennial College Football Playoff/New Year’s Six bowl contender.
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Kizer is one of the two pro-style passers that will likely go in the top five of the 2017 NFL Draft. The other signal caller is Clemson Tigers star junior Deshaun Watson. Will Kizer leave or will Kelly be run out of town first?