Rejoice, Notre Dame fans! The Second Coming is upon thee! Joe Montana’s kid will be joining thy gloriously gallant gridiron team!

SI’s Arash Markazi tosses over news that Joe’s eldest son Nate will soon be heading for the South Bend campus, challenging for the QB spot.

So, is the younger Montana an immediate lock to be the star signal-caller for the Irish? Not quite.

Markazi describes how Nate’s final year went while playing for national high school powerhouse De La Salle:

As a third string quarterback on the varsity for his senior season, Nate was 12-of-19 for 166 yards and one touchdown and ran 17 times for 33 yards in limited action. No scholarship offers came his way, but he worked out for several schools before committing to Notre Dame over USC and Stanford. (Charlie) Weis - a family friend - said Nate would have a chance to compete for a spot on the team and earn a scholarship in the future.

It doesn’t exactly inspire any shaking down thunder from the sky. But Nate is aware of what he’s up against, trying to follow in the footsteps of his famous Fighting Irish father:

“I try not to think about it as much as I can,” says Nate of the inevitable comparisons. “It would have come up at other schools too so I’m not too worried about it.”

Joe adds that he didn’t try to push ND or any other program onto his son’s choice of college:

“In the end I told him, ‘Look, don’t go to school for me, don’t go to school for mom, you got to do what you got to do and go to the school you’ll be happiest at if football doesn’t work out. And he chose Notre Dame.”

If Nate can’t cut the mustard, Irish fans will be happy to know that Joe has another QB amongst his brood - 16-year-old Nicholas. However, it doesn’t seem that Nick will be Notre Dame bound, as he’s rumored to be quite enamored with - *gulp* - USC!

But any Montana will be welcome to South Bend (Nate already has two sisters attending the school.) Considering last year’s dismal performance, they would even have welcomed Hannah Montana.