Predictions for Brandon Wimbush in 2017
As the Irish work their way through fall camp and inch closer to the start of the season, the team at Golden Domer Daily has begun contemplating our predictions for 2017. We started with Notre Dame’s new starting quarterback, Brandon Wimbush.

If you were to survey Irish fans around the world and ask them what questions and concerns they have going into next season, my guess is the majority of those questions would revolve around Brandon Wimbush. Stepping into his first year as the starting quarterback at Notre Dame, fans are not sure what to expect from the red-shirt junior.
To formulate my prediction on Brandon Wimbush’s performance in 2017, I considered a few different data points. I started with Notre Dame quarterbacks that have played under Brian Kelly. For this exercise, I think the statistics from the 2010, 2011, and 2012 seasons can be thrown out. The first couple of seasons under a new head coach mainly feature players that were recruited by the previous staff. Also, the Irish had more than one starting quarterback in each of those seasons.
Yes, Notre Dame had multiple starting quarterbacks in 2014 and 2015 as well. However, In those seasons the Irish had much longer stretches with only one quarterback starting. In 2014, Everett Golson started every regular season game. In 2015, DeShone Kizer stepped in for Malik Zaire after he suffered season-ending injury in the second game of the season. This isn’t the ideal consistency that teams want to have at the quarterback position, but for the sake of our exercise it works.
After looking at the production of past Notre Dame quarterbacks, I looked at the season that Riley Ferguson had last year at Memphis, where Chip Long was the Offensive Coordinator. Comparing Ferguson and Wimbush is not apples to apples, but it gives us a better idea of what the overall offensive production might look like under Chip Long this season.
Without further adieu, here is my prediction for Brandon Wimbush’s 2017 campaign.
Drumroll…
I think Wimbush will pass for 3025 yards with 26 TDs and 12 INTs. I also think he will rush for 485 yards and 8 TDs. (In the regular season)
I arrived at these numbers by taking the average of stats posted by Notre Dame’s starting quarterbacks the last three years and Riley Ferguson. Then, I made my final adjustments based on my feelings about Brandon Wimbush and the rest of the Irish offense.
I expect Wimbush to surprise Irish fans by eclipsing the 3000 yard mark in the team’s final game of the 2017 season. With an improved defense, this stat line is good enough to get the Irish to at least eight wins, hopefully more.
Feel free to take note of my predictions and let me know how wrong I was at the end of the season. (@Leniart_ND on twitter)

