Dayne Crist tore his ACL on Halloween a year ago, playing mop-up duty against Washington State. Now, 364 days later, the Notre Dame quarterback has suffered another devastating knee injury.

Crist ruptured his pattellar tendon in today’s game against Tulsa, according to NBC. If that’s accurate, it likely means Crist’s season is over, and the Irish will have to finish out the season with true freshman Tommy Rees taking the snaps. Rees took over after Crist was hurt today, and looked very solid early on in leading three touchdown drives and throwing two TD passes (the other came on a hook and ladder play). But he also threw an interception at the end of the half which was returned for a touchdown which brought Tulsa to within two points.

Crist was 174-of-292 for 2,033 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. He had also thrown seven interceptions, and his 59.6% completion percentage has been pointed to by many as a big reason the Irish haven’t yet gotten Brian Kelly’s high-octane spread offense into full gear.

It’s a huge setback for Crist and the Irish, who are in danger of not being bowl eligible this season with games remaining against Utah and USC.

Notre Dame’s season hinged on a few things, but by far the most important thing was the health of starting quarterback Dayne Crist.

Behind the third-year quarterback on the depth chart was a walk-on with a famous name, and a bunch of a freshmen. Well, now the Fighting Irish are finding out just how good those guys behind Crist are. Or bad.

Crist drove Notre Dame 72 yards for a touchdown on its opening drive against Michigan, but his quarterback sneak for a score was his last play. True freshman Tommy Rees entered the game and threw an interception on his first attempt. Michigan scored one play later. After another three and out, Rees was lifted for Nate Montana, who hasn’t had much better luck.

The only hope for the Irish in this game was to outscore Michigan. And now that the defense is not only going to have to stop Denard Robinson, but is going to have to spend most of the day trying to do it, it would be a miracle if they pulled this one off.

In other news, Virginia Tech goes down to James Madison. Sorry, Boise.