Notre Dame will inevitably insist that the quarterback competition be this spring and preseason. Irish head coach Brian Kelly will spend at least a few weeks insisting that Jack Coan, Drew Pyne and Tyler Buchner have all received equal representation in practice, including up-and-coming junior Brendon Clark if his knee is healthy enough. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees presented the ‘open’ distinction last week.
But Notre Dame would not have brought Coan in as a graduate transfer from Wisconsin if he were not immediately put in pole position.
“We are always creating competition and making this team better,” Rees said Wednesday. ‘We had an opportunity to add a quarter with this number. We felt there was a need for a veteran in the room. ‘
Coan started 18 games for a viable Power Five program, completing 69.6 percent of his passes and hitting 18 times at just five interceptions. He started a Rose Bowl after winning 10 games in 2019. He has the CV to start on his own right for the Irish, and not just because of the situation.
“We definitely added the right one in Jack,” Rees said. “He is an extremely mature child. He trimmed his tail to put him in an excellent position here in Notre Dame. He’s someone I’m eager to work with and pick his brain on, while also helping him understand what it means to play quarterback in Notre Dame and understand this offense. ”
Pains did little to impress and even less to distress. Clark is a clear injury question moving forward. And Buchner has not played competitive football since 2019. Coan’s arrival was necessary, and not just praising a veteran like Rees.
The chance of Buchner will come, and if he completes every pass this spring, then the chance may well be in 2021, but that’s quite the meteoric rise, even if Rees feels he’s recruiting Buchner ‘for ten years’.
This recruitment got steam after Buchner made an impression on a campus on campus, a moment that included some of the best quarterbacks in his class, deliberately in the lineup of Notre Dame.
“When we were in the camp situation, it was very clear to everyone that there was a competition,” said Brian Polian, Irish recruitment coordinator, in December. “There were some quarterbacks in the class who knew, ‘I’m here with three or four other guys and I’m trying to be the one they present in class. ‘
‘It’s by design. We need to find out who is going to stand up if they know they are being evaluated and who is going to compete. [Buchner] competed and he looked good. We never looked back. ”
Notre Dame did not look back when many of the recruiting industry did so after watching Buchner in the Elite 11 camp last summer, his only public exposure since the 2019 season. The echo chamber intensified concerns about its throwing mechanics, a concern that could have been enough to deter the Irish in light of their recent experience with a highly-regarded quarterback.
Rees would have had none of that, by that time the offensive coordinator and thus more influence on how to handle a quarterback’s throwing move.
“For me, it’s almost from the base, through the core and then to making sure the target line, eyes, body position are ready,” Rees said. ‘It’s less about the release point and more about making sure we can get the base right, getting the target line right, working on the core and then making sure we really go to the shoulder and that’s for me where I tend to cut it off. ”
After all, Buchner’s throwing movement served him well enough to earn scholarships from Notre Dame, Alabama, Georgia, USC and Oregon.
“You do not want to get into an area unless it is something very extreme, where you are too tampering with how a child has thrown a ball all his life,” Rees said. ‘He has been throwing football in the right way for 18 years to get him in Notre Dame. I’m not talking Tyler here, I’m talking here in general.
“If we feel something needs to change, then we probably did not do our job during the evaluation period.”
If Buchner’s throwing move turns out to be nothing more than a narrative, and not a concern, the Irish might have a quarterback competition for the next 208 days. Although it will serve the content machine a lot, do not hold your breath.
This is a nod to Coan, not a critique of Buchner.
VARIOUS OFFERING QUOTES
Somewhere in the shift to the early signing period, the Notre Dame coaching staff stopped offering pieces for each signer. The exercise was always filled with repetitive platitudes, but it did deliver content when it was time to discuss the Cane Berrong or Jayden Thomas, the recipient.
However, if this is the biggest loss, then so be it. Less drama in February, the budding season, is added value.
Between the December signing period and last week’s nominal day, Polian did offer insights on three non-quarterback attacking players:
On the tackle Joe Alt: ‘In our own data, which we are going to announce to the media today (in December), we once (Joe Alt) listed at 240 and played as a junior team. Now you see he is 40 pounds up, he is 280, he is moving excellently. ”
On tackle Blake Fisher: ‘It’s worth mentioning that Mayor Blake Fisher is having a conversation between all the commitments. The work they did with Prince Kollie (consensus four-star lineout) Prince Kollie was thrown a bit by coach (Clark) Lea to Vanderbilt. The way they were, the way they revolved around him for a few days and helped calm him down and be there for him and give him support while he worked on a change there. …
“We can not order them to talk to anyone. It’s not within the rules. … I’ve already told several guys that, as soon as they got into the process later, maybe a man who committed in the fall, maybe a man who committed six to eight weeks ago, they talked about how welcoming that group was. ”
On the kicker Joshua Bryan, signed despite Jonathan Doerer’s return for a fifth season gift: ‘I do not want to count on a first year. This is not great. This is hard to do. … In an ideal situation, you would like to have a man on your campus for a year to hope that you get them ready and prepared and help him develop physically and become stronger. This enabled us to do so.
‘This is now one of the places where NCAA enlightenment is related to players in your program who have exhausted the qualification of the original program. The man does not count against you 85, so we were lucky in this case. When we entered summer, my assumption was that we needed to identify a kicker who could come in here and do so as a true freshman. This is perhaps one of the few cases where the circumstances of everything that has taken place around us in the world may have helped us a little. ‘
Micah Jones TRANSFER
In the slightest shock of the off-season, receiver Micah Jones entered the transfer portal on Monday morning. Jones’ only appearance in 2020 appears on Senior Day, a day on which the junior’s name is called out among the seniors leaving the Irish program.
In three seasons, he appears in five games and never makes a chance. While his qualified class receivers have not yet been eliminated as a whole (Kevin Austin, Braden Lenzy and Lawrence Keys), Jones has struggled even more than his peers. Jones was named the next Miles Boykin, entering just a few weeks after Boykin’s memorable Citrus Bowl tournament he won. Jones never moved up the Notre Dame depth map. For example, he just spent his second season with the Irish scout team.
Jones will study this spring with three years to qualify. While the transfer portal is already overflowing, a former four-star prospect still with a physical size, should catch the attention of some adults across the country.
Thank you, Notre Dame. I entered my name in the portal. pic.twitter.com/UFGojEptCB
– Micah Jones (@ mej2018) 8 February 2021
Using Polian’s description of the NCAA enlightenment regarding the 2021 scholarship, and with only Doerer and defensive tackle Kurt Hinish qualifying as players who have returned despite being eligible, Notre Dame will to 87 bursary players should fall, and Jones’ departure. lower the score to 89.