Benched by Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly after one half in the season-opener against South Florida, Dayne Crist never got another shot last year. So it came as no surprise when he announced his transfer from Notre Dame for his final year of eligibility.
Crist chose Kansas ahead of Wisconsin and Delaware so that he could play for Charlie Weis, the coach who recruited him to Notre Dame and groomed him as a redshirt and then a backup. Weis would have moved Crist into the starting job in 2010, but was fired before he could do so.
Weis likes his quarterbacks to be smart pocket passers who have the arm to make all throws and zip the football into tight spots. With Tom Brady as the prototype, Weis isn’t easy to please, but he was convinced Crist had all the tools when he recruited him out of high school, and nothing has changed the coach’s mind.
Crist (6-4, 235) is similar in size to Brady and is trying to gain more similarities to one of the all-time greats. When Weis speaks about Brady, Crist is all ears.
“I remember at Notre Dame watching a lot of film on him,” Crist said of Brady. “Tom Brady and Coach have a real special relationship and still talk frequently. He makes note of that all the time.”
For a guy not blessed with speed, Brady does a nice job of avoiding sacks.
“He’s one of the best, if not the best, in the pocket in terms of the movement and stuff,” Crist said. “In my opinion, he’s the best (quarterback) in the game, so whatever I can take from that, I’ll be a sponge and take whatever I can from that.”
Weis encourages Crist — a tri-captain with offensive lineman Tanner Hawkinson and defensive end/outside linebacker Toben Opurum —
to make sure the offense is in the right play after surveying the defense.
Crist did that in the spring game, changing the side to which Tony Pierson would run and then watching him sprint 88 yards for a touchdown.
Despite multiple drops from the receivers, Crist completed 11 of 19 passes for 156 yards and impressed the only guy whose opinion matters.
“I thought he slung it around pretty good,” Weis said. “I was pleased. He knows the offense. He knows how to run the operation. He can get us out of trouble in a bad call.”