This Guy Plays Notre Dame Football: #7 Brandon Wimbush

Brandon Wimbush is a quarterback hailing from Jersey City, NJ. He wears #7 for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (he used to be #12, but he changed numbers after the 2015 season when Will Fuller left for the NFL). He is 6”1” and about 220 pounds, so pretty decent size for a quarterback. He is a junior that was red-shirted last season. Brandon has the opportunity to be among the group lucky enough (is that the right phrase?) to be named a Notre Dame starting quarterback. He briefly played against the Massachusetts Minutemen and the Pittsburgh Panthers in 2015 as a backup to DeShone Kizer, scoring 1 TD that season (more on that later).

Well, I guess technically Wimbush hasn’t been named the starter quite yet. It’s going to happen, though. I give an absolutely accurate and well-researched, scientific guess that he has a 99.99% chance of starting against the Temple Owls on September 2. Any supposed hold up has been because of people who overreacted to Ian Book’s performance in the Blue-Gold Game in April. Once again I say, that was the Blue-Gold Game. Look for Wimbush and his experience with the team to lead the offense next season with much excitement and hype coming from the Fighting Irish faithful (yours truly included).

3 Things to Know About Brandon Wimbush:

1. He was supposed to red-shirt in his true freshman season (2015) when we had both Kizer and Malik Zaire . However, we all should know at this point that Malik had a season-ending ankle injury, catapulting DeShone to the starter role and Brandon to the backup role. Instead, Brandon red-shirted this past season in 2016 when we seemingly didn’t exactly know all season who the quarterback was going to be (between Kizer and Zaire) on any given play.
2. He is 3-for-5 (60%) on career passes, and he has more yards rushing than he does passing (wayyy more, but also more on that in a bit).
3. He is the definition of a guy waiting for his turn to shine, as he was directly behind Kizer and Zaire. To quote The Killers, he’ll be coming out of his cage, and he should be doing just fine.

YouTube Hot Fire

I’ve built it up enough, so here it is, the 1 rushing (and only) TD of Wimbush’s career (well... somewhere here):

The Minutemen lit one lantern that day, because Wimbush came by land, and quickly.

I, MattyG, Dub Thee:

Brandon Wimbush, the B-Dubs Blazin’ Wing of the Notre Dame Offense. He’s got blazin’ fast speed, he’s got sauce, and well he is BW (B-Dub).

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

2017 Forecast

Wimbush is becoming quickly indoctrinated into the lore, tradition, and hype that is the Notre Dame quarterback. However, I believe that the hype is actually warranted. When you watch Wimbush on the field, you see this big, physical presence on the field. He isn’t just a presence, Wimbush has great ability and agility. He can run and stutter-step with the best of them, finding space to run or to buy time in and out of the pocket to throw. Both of those threats will be key to the offense this year, especially as we see different formations that cater to Brandon’s ability to run and pass effectively.

Brandon Wimbush is, for all intents and purposes, coming into this season as a new quarterback. He has some playing experience, and he has been a part of the offense for 2+ years. However, he has thrown 5 passes in total, and he red-shirted last season, so he will need to show that he is capable and confident in his abilities. There might be a bit of a learning curve, but I think his determination and skill will carry the offense. He has strong running back and receiving cores with him, and that will help immensely. They should be able to feed off each other so that the offense will be firing on all cylinders. Be excited for Brandon Wimbush to lead the offense this year. He should be able to put together a fantastic season.