Notre Dame opens up the first spring practice of the Marcus Freeman era tomorrow on St. Patrick’s Day. Will it be full of good luck then? Today we preview the most talked about position in American sports, the quarterback. After a one-year stop for Jack Coan the starting position opens back up again with rising sophomore Tyler Buchner the betting favorite to take the job.
We’ll discuss that and more below.
Predicted 2022 Lineup
*Official 2022 roster size
DEPTH CHART
Tyler Buchner, SO, 6-1, 215*
Drew Pyne, r-SO, 5-11 1/2, 200*
Steve Angeli, FR, 6-2 3/8, 210*
Ron Powlus III, r-FR, 6-2 5/8, 225*
3 Questions
1) Will the offense be able to rely on Tyler Buchner’s arm beginning in the opener?
Hey, time for a quick plug. Just before Christmas I went over the situation with Buchner’s arm and passing abilities with a warning that if your expectations are really low be prepared to be extremely wrong but also he’s unlikely to dominate through the air straight away.
We saw this for several years with Ian Book under center–when you have a good running game built around a mobile quarterback who is able to make things happen with his feet then it makes the layups in the passing game that much easier.
I think this offense will find a lot of layups for Buchner throwing the football. I imagine we’ll see plenty of 13 of 19 for 179 yards type games from the young quarterback which on paper won’t blow anyone away. However, if that’s paired with a really potent running game and a team routinely scoring 30+ points it could be a wonderful first year of starting for Buchner.
2) Wait, is the job already Buchner’s?
A wild Drew Pyne appears! I’ll say this in Pyne’s favor, at least he’ll be getting a massive amount of snaps during the spring. Incoming freshman Steve Angeli will be on campus for these practices but you imagine he is a long, long ways away from even thinking about challenging for serious playing time. Likewise, Powlus was one of if not the lowest rated recruit we’ve ever graded so I think everyone is aware of his situation on the depth chart.
Pyne will get his opportunity, no doubt.
Realistically, something pretty bad would have to happen to Buchner in practices absent injury for Pyne to move into the driver’s seat. I think there are fears of Buchner being too much in the mold of Brandon Wimbush as the latter dealt with some visible struggles to his accuracy and confidence. But even in that situation it took an entire off-season plus a few games (with Book looking good in practice the whole time) for a switch at quarterback to be made.
It’ll be a test of Pyne’s patience, for sure. However, he’s much closer to real playing time in 2022 than he ever was last season and being the backup at Notre Dame traditionally hasn’t been too bad of a position in recent times. He has to be ready.
3) Should we be concerned about Buchner getting hurt given his running abilities?
Yes, of course! But what can you do?
There was consternation about the inability to add to the depth chart this off-season but that never seemed realistic as bringing in someone with an immediate higher ceiling than Buchner was always going to be tough and convincing someone to sit as a 3rd-stringer behind Buchner and Pyne doesn’t really feel necessary. You might as well play Angeli if it gets to that point, and I would admit, he’s probably mature enough to perform at a decent floor given his inexperience anyway.
You can maybe run Buchner a little less over the course of a season but again that is easier said than done. How many times during the Book era did we clamor for him to run a little less in the “easy” games only to find out the offense doesn’t run as smoothly without his legs? For example, Book only carried the ball 5 or fewer times in 4 career games and only once against a Power 5 opponent. We just have to accept that Buchner will carry the ball a lot and pray he stays healthy.
Overview
There will be a massive spotlight on Tyler Buchner this spring. It’s too bad there will only be 1 fully open practice to the media before the Blue-Gold Game because it would be nice to see a larger sample size of his progress and abilities. Unfortunately, we’ll have to make do with a lot more speculation and fuzzy guessing about Buchner’s development based on small glimpses and vibes.
Let this be my space to complain about the lack of media access, especially during the spring which has always seemed aggressively closed off and should be a more relaxed and entertaining time to see the progress of players who may not be given such a window during fall camp. I was hoping under Marcus Freeman we’d see a more open policy but that hasn’t come to fruition.
Maybe next year with a year under his belt things will loosen up.
Lots of sliding and running out of bounds drills for the QBs. Plenty of massages for those tight hamstrings too.
On point 3 I wouldn’t be overly concerned about injury, or at least I wouldn’t be more concerned just because Buchner is going to run. Studies have consistently shown that running quarterbacks are not more prone to injury than statues.
New Study: Quarterbacks That Run Most Are Not Injured Most | FilmstudyBaltimore
Mobile Quarterbacks and Injury Rates | Fantasy Points
I just hope that Buchner can be a competent passer so that we don’t see defenses stacking up to stop the run
I’m just hoping for some hint of a modern passing game.
I’m hoping for a JT Barrett Freshman season from Buchner this year.
12 games – 203/314 (64.6 pct) for 2834 yards. 34 TD’s to 10 INTs
Rushing- 171 att for 938 yards and 11 TD’s
Admittedly, I’ve been down on Rees in the past and haven’t found him to be that creative under Kelly. But I thought he did some things in the Fiesta Bowl that I really liked including flooding zones with his top playmakers.
Overall I’m extremely bullish on the 2022 offense. Predicting a lot of quick strike/big play scores with ND guys running wide open. The RPO and Buchner’s ability to run will keep defenses honest and I think he can throw the ball just fine. I don’t think he needs to be a surgeon in the passing game.
Those would be some juicy numbers. That’s jack coan passing (with 7 more tds) and brandon wimbush rushing. Now THAT is an offense I can support.
Yeah, I think that’s setting the bar a little too high, that’s basically Ian Book’s best season (2019: 3034 yards, 34 TD, 6 INT in 13 games 546 yards rushing). Book ran for 1,517 total yards in his whole career. Fine to hope for shooting for the stars and ending up on the moon, but I wouldn’t expect such a huge year.
I am bullish on Buchner though, he needs to make a jump but he has the tools to do it. Also, for off-season content I might check out the game against Virginia Tech again, since that basically is the only game where he really ran the whole playbook in a situation where they were desperate and probably highlighted the best and worst parts of his game that day.
I agree it’s a high bar, but I think it’s attainable and don’t think he should be written off if he falls short.
I think it’s more in line with Book’s 2018 season over 10 games (Book didn’t start 4 games that year) according to sports-reference.com. 214/314 (68.2%) 2628 yards 19/7 TD to INT and 280 yards on the ground. Mind you ND had Dexter Williams that year who was a workhorse the last 9 games after his suspension.
2018 was also Book’s most YPA at 8.4 versus a depressingly low 7.6 in 2019. If we can bump that YPA up to the 9’s for Buchner I will feel much better about landing elite QB talent in the future while simultaneously feeling much better about our explosiveness.
That seems like the absolute ceiling of Buchner with a Heisman invite at least. We’d win a lot of games if he did that. That’s maybe something to hope for as a 2nd or 3rd year starter at best (and a little more skill position talent around him).
If Buchner puts up those stats next year, that would make my “we should get Kedon Slovis” take my worst take in this here comment section, and I was pretty aggressive about wanting to fire Kelly in 2016.
I suspect Buchner will end up with closer to 1800 yards passing than 2800.
Passing yardage not seen since 2007!??
Well, that’s factoring in the probability that he will be out for some games. And I said “closer”, meaning I’m taking the under on 2300, not that he will put up 1800.
Odds that there was holding called on the picture above?
Oh gosh, I’d put my next paycheck there was no flag. Holding can get called every down, it’s super subjective on the refs to determine if the hold was impactful to the play.
Must be a trick photo, the vaunted Notre Dame line would never need to resort to holding against Toledo! Probably won that game by 50.
Interesting. Caption on the photo says it’s from the first half and with the ND bench in the background, suggests it would be the 2nd quarter. Looking at ESPN’s p-by-p, Buchner played 1 series in the 2nd Q, and had a 15 yd completion. His motion suggests it was a longer throw than 15 yds and definitely doesn’t look like he was tucked that and started running. Might be his 4th quarter 55 Yd TD pass to Tyree. 3 ND penalties on the day, 2 Defensive Holding and 1 DPOI.
Maybe offsetting penalties? Those probably don’t show up anywhere.