Nate Montana, son of former NFL legend Joe Montana and walk on quarterback at Notre Dame, has decided to transfer from his old man’s alma mater to transfer to Pasadena City College.

It is nothing nefarious or worthy of hand-wringing, but Notre Dame football once again will be without a Montana at quarterback this fall.

Nate Montana, son of Irish and NFL legend Joe, has elected to spend the fall semester at Pasadena City College in order to get playing experience at the quarterback position.

Team spokesman Brian Hardin said the departure has nothing to do with grades or discipline issues — it is simply a matter of Montana, a walk-on, knowing he’d be buried on the depth chart and in practices this fall. Montana is expected to return to Notre Dame for the spring semester.

Not that the Irish are hurting for talent under center. Jimmy Clausen returns as a third-year starter, ballyhooed sophomore Dayne Crist is the backup and Evan Sharpley, a former starter fresh off a summer of minor league baseball, is expected to return for a fifth season as insurance at the position.

I don’t know the entire situation, but this sounds like a smart move by Nate. If he’s going to be stuck behind Clausen, Crist and Sharpley, he might as well transfer and get some much-needed playing time. I hope it works out for the young man.

Joe Montana’s son, Nick, who is entering his senior year at Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, California, has officially committed the University of Washington. This news comes on the heels of the Huskies losing out on Skyline High School’s Jake Heaps, who spurned Washington to commit to BYU.

Montana (the son, not one of the greatest quarterbacks to have ever lived) actually had offers from Notre Dame, LSU, Ohio State, Stanford, Alabama and Georgia, but chose Washington despite the Huskies’ brutal 0-12 season in 2008.

Even though the Huskies have a ton of work ahead of them in order to be competitive again, it’s nice to see that Montana wants to help play a role in turning Washington back into the proud program it once was. Nick could have gone to his dad’s alma mater Notre Dame, but that probably would have created unnecessary pressure on him to succeed.

For three SEC programs to be interested in Montana, you know the kid has some immense talent. It’ll be fun to follow him at Washington after he wraps up his senior year of high school.