“Winning a national championship has great implications on how a quarterback’s career is looked at here. And I don’t have one. So people think I’m a bum. Maybe.”
–Ron Powlus, November 1996.
Say this for Ron Powlus: He never has failed to grasp the bottom line. When a reporter asked him in the preseason about his personal goals for the year, Powlus responded: “Win the games. That’s all it ever has been.”
Powlus is not winning the games this year. Notre Dame is 2-5 and has scored more than 17 points only once. Powlus may not be the chief problem. But he also is not the solution.
Irish coach Bob Davie announced Monday that backup Jarious Jackson will get significant playing time Saturday against Boston College. But Davie didn’t go far enough.
Powlus’ record as a starter at Notre Dame is 24-15-1. And that’s where it should stay.
Powlus talks about never having won a national championship. Shoot, he never has won a bowl game. And he has played in only one. There must be a statute of limitations on convenient excuses. You can only point to bad schemes and slow receivers for so long.
Powlus’ problem is not his mechanics or his ability to read defenses. It’s his timing. If Powlus were a comedian, he would have been yanked off the stage long ago.
The fourth quarter has been Powlus’ Waterloo. In the game’s final 15 minutes, his feet get happy and his mind goes numb.
He has been sacked just 10 times this season, but seven of those have come in the fourth quarter. He has thrown five interceptions in the final period but just one in the first three.
Powlus’ definition of clutch probably would involve a manual transmission.
Against Michigan, with his team driving for a game-tying touchdown, Powlus took a delay-of-game penalty on third and goal from the 6-yard line. On the next play, he threw an interception.
Last week, with the game tied 17-17 against USC, Powlus completed five straight passes to lead the Irish inside the Trojans’ 20. Then he underthrew an open Malcolm Johnson on a key third-and-11.
“That would have been at least a first down,” Davie said. “Maybe a touchdown.”
In the next series, Powlus tried to thread the needle on a pass to Bobby Brown. The ball was tipped, and USC’s Mark Cusano made an interception to set up the Trojans’ game-winning field goal.
Given one final chance to rally, Powlus threw two dumpoff passes to Autry Denson, chucked one ball out of bounds and took a sack on the game’s final play.
Ugh.
Now, that doesn’t mean that Powlus should be booed at Notre Dame Stadium. He’s a college student, remember? And it certainly doesn’t mean his parents should continue to get heckled by feebleminded fans. But it does mean Powlus should get fitted for a baseball cap. And Jackson should warm up his arm.
Until this season, Jackson’s only action came against third-string defenses, long after the game was decided. Lately he has been used during short-yardage situations and has looked simply splendid handing the ball off to Denson.
Now, with Notre Dame’s bowl hopes torpedoed, the time has come to find out what else this guy can do. It would seem rather silly to wait until next year’s opener against Michigan.
“Jarious has done well in practice,” Davie said. “But you and I both know that practice is a lot, lot different than those games.”
Jackson’s talents are still hidden in a box, just waiting to be unwrapped.
“Some people have him categorized as an option quarterback, but that isn’t the only thing he does well,” said quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford. “He has an excellent arm and has continuously improved his accuracy.”
And who knows? He might even flourish late in a game, unlike Powlus, who happens to be Notre Dame’s all-time leader in passing yards, completions and touchdown passes.
Powlus might own all the records. But it’s his record that counts.
