Published: April 18, 2008 10:47 pm         

Notre Dame Blue-Gold focus on Jimmy Clausen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame fans will get their first look at a beefed-up Jimmy Clausen at the annual Blue-Gold spring game today, though they’ll probably have to wait until the fall to get a good indication of how much he’s improved.

With backup Evan Sharpley playing for the Irish baseball team at West Virginia on Saturday and recruit Dayne Crist still in high school in California, Clausen will be the only scholarship quarterback in action. Because of that, the game will be more of a controlled scrimmage with a scoring system in which a first down is worth one point, a defensive stop is worth two points and a turnover for a touchdown is worth 10 points.

Defensive players will only need to get two hands on Clausen to down him, so fans won’t get to see whether the 18 pounds he’s put on since the end of the season will allow him to escape the rush any better. Clausen, now at 212 pounds, believes it will.

“Gaining the weight just helps in every aspect of the game — my speed, getting out of the pocket, breaking tackles and stuff like that,” he said. “It just feels good to have the extra weight on there.”

Coach Charlie Weis said after the season that the biggest challenge for Clausen was to hit the weight room so he’d be better prepared to face the beating he took at quarterback and escape the rush. Too many times Clausen went down easily, Weis said.

Clausen heads into the spring game in a dramatically different situation than a year ago, when he was just three months removed from high school. He was one of three quarterbacks battling for the starter’s job then and was slowed by a bone spur on his throwing arm last that required arthroscopic elbow surgery.

This year he is the undisputed starting quarterback.

Despite his elbow problems, he managed to become the starter in the second game last season. He missed the eighth and ninth games of the season because of injuries, but started the last three. Clausen said it was the only time last season he was near 100 percent.

Through his first seven games, six of them starts, Clausen had a completion rate of 57.4 percent, for 618 yards with one touchdown and five interceptions, an efficiency rating of 89.51. In his last three games, he had a completion rate of 54.8 percent for 636 yards with six touchdowns and one interception, a 123.9 efficiency rating.

Weis has no doubt that Clausen has improved, comparing him to a student who went from 100-level classes to 300-level classes, completely skipping the 200-level.

“We made huge, quantum leaps, but there’s plenty of room to grow,” he said.

With Sharpley missing more than half the 15 practice sessions this spring because of baseball, Clausen has been helped by taking the bulk of the snaps. Clausen said it’s helped him to learn the offense even faster. But he still believes he has a long way to go.

“I think I can get better in every aspect of the game, especially the mental aspect. I’m just trying to get a grasp of every little thing that’s in the playbook and give us the best chance to go out in September and win,” Clausen said. “I think I’m going to be a different player this year.”