Unless he's injured -- and I imagine he walks around with both personal body guards and a custom foam bodysuit as preventative measures -- the odds of Jimmy Clausen not starting Notre Dame's season opener against Nevada are somewhere around zero. Clausen was all but anointed the moment he signed on with Charlie Weis, he's entrenched two seasons in and he's coming off the best effort of his career, having finally shown the promise in the bowl win over Hawaii that made him the most hyped quarterback recruit in the country two years ago.

But, just for the sake of argument, as long as we're navigating the dire straits of March, Weis would like to remind the other five-star slinger on his roster, sophomore-to-be Dayne Crist, that the door remains open:

Crist is right with Irish coach Charlie Weis' thoughts as the team moves through its first week of spring drills: Weis wants Crist to push starting quarterback Jimmy Clausen -- even if Clausen is fairly entrenched at the spot -- and Crist intends to do just that.
[...]
"It's an obstacle. Jimmy has paid his dues and he's done great. But I can't let that stop me from being who I am ... Whether it be tomorrow or in a week or a year, I'm not going to stop until I get what I want. And what I want is being out on the field and winning games for Notre Dame."

Weis personally backs up the "competition" angle, which is very big of him, but I think the language here is appropriate: Crist pushing Clausen is still mainly about Clausen's progress into becoming the kind of quarterback he was recruited to be.

On that front, Year Three should be the "Leap Year," when substance replaces potential, which is presumably what Weis and Clausen (and Crist, in his way) are striving for. Taken as a whole, Clausen's numbers show him right on schedule to take that next step up:

That's a strong improvement across the board, with the notable exception of interceptions, but the accompanying leap in the average gain and especially in touchdowns still led to a fairly dramatic improvement in the most important categories: efficiency rating, scoring and, of course, winning. This is exactly the schedule you'd expect for a young passer growing into his role.

Look a little deeper, though, and suddenly that rate of progress nearly disappears when you cut away the chaffe:

The improvement is still there, but nowhere does it even remotely match the huge strides Clausen made against inferior defenses (of which he saw twice as many in '08 as in '07); in most respects, especially when it comes to touchdowns and overall efficiency -- and, yes, to his offense's and his team's overall success -- sophomore Clausen wasn't discernibly better than freshman Clausen against the best teams on the schedule.

This would be the next logical step in Jimmy's career trajectory: Competence against competent defenses. If Weis can't get that at this point in the story -- and assuming he's still around to make decisions, which isn't a very likely combination -- then Crist might be worth a serious look. But not until then.