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Yeah I guess if you go on just where he was ranked as a recruit and how his career played out, then the label unfortunately is there. I don't agree that he didn't deserve that ranking. His tools were about as good for a drop back prospect as there was. He and Andrew Luck were the top 2 rated drop back prospects in 2008. Luck went to a system that used his strengths, and Crist went to one that took away his strengths. I think it would be interesting to speculate what would have happened had Luck gone to ND and Crist to Stanford.

Dayne Crist was not a spread QB. He did not do well with the finesse dink and dunk passes. What he did do well was use his strong arm in a more vertical passing game. If Kelly had modified his approach to fit his personel, Crist still could have been really good. He showed it in that first season as a starter. Against Michigan, he had ND rolling until he took a hit that caused him to leave the game. Rees came in and threw an interception that allowed Michigan back in the game. Then it was Diaco's inability to harness Denard Robinson that lost that game. Against Michigan State, he was looking like a future Heismann candidate. Again, the D and special teams lost the game.

I will say that Crist had a fragile psyche that was not helped by Kelly's constant purple faced tirades against him. By the time he left ND and went to Kansas, he was a shell of what he was when he entered ND. His career was disappointing but to put a bust label on him is a little much when so much of what happened to him was out of his control. I also commend him on his love for ND and his willingness to stick with the school even though he had come here to play in Charlie Weis' system that fit him much better.