On the first day of spring drills 2021, Wisconsin grad-transfer Jack Coan, red-shirt freshman Drew Pyne and early-entry freshmen Tyler Buchner took snaps, threw the football, and moved around in their red jerseys just like they do every practice.
But this spring practice inside the Irish Athletics Center – minus Ian Book – looked and felt a whole lot differently than what has been the scenario at Notre Dame since Book took control of the reins on Sept. 22, 2018 and didn’t relinquish them until the clock ran out in the Jan. 1, 2021 loss to Alabama in the Rose Bowl/College Football Playoffs.
There still are two No. 12s on the Irish roster – safety D.J. Brown and now Buchner on offense. Everything else about the quarterback position has changed.
Irish head coach Brian Kelly provided a plausible explanation for the open competition that will exist at quarterback this spring. Yet there’s little doubt that Coan – with 18 career starts, a Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl appearance under his belt – had an edge over Pyne and Buchner as spring drills commenced.
There’s also little doubt Pyne’s makeup will prompt him to fight for the starting job until his final breath and that Buchner can wing the football on par with any true freshman quarterback in the country.
“The first thing Jack and I talked about was that our group here at Notre Dame is one where you will get immediate support from these guys because it’s Notre Dame,” Kelly said. “When you come here, it is all about supporting each other. We just have that built into our culture.
“So I said, ‘You don’t have to worry about pretending to be somebody else. Just be who you are. They know who you are. You got a lot of recognition for the things you’ve accomplished already in the Big Ten at Wisconsin. Be who you are. Be authentic. When you’re authentic, guys trust you.’”
At 6-foot-3¼, 220 pounds, Coan strikes a different pose from what has been the norm with the 6-foot-0 Book and the 5-foot-11½, 194-pound Pyne.
“When you’re a starting quarterback, you already have great traits,” said Kelly of Coan, who completed 69.6 percent of his 339 passes in 2019 for 2,727 yards, 18 touchdowns and five interceptions while leading the Badgers to a 10-4 mark.
And yet the feisty Pyne, who impressed offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tommy Rees upon his arrival last winter for his quick adaptation and understanding of the offense, is accustomed to the underdog role.
“Drew is built for this,” Kelly said. “He’s always been told he’s not good enough or can’t be the starter or can’t win. He relishes these opportunities. He’s always succeeded, so this doesn’t affect Drew at all. It just motivates him more.”
And thus, Kelly is genuine in his claims that the quarterback job sans Book is up for grabs. If Pyne is better than Coan and Buchner, he’ll be the starter. If Buchner’s sheer talent can’t be denied, as long as his grasp of the big picture is in lockstep with his abilities, he’ll win he job. It’s just going to be difficult for the veteran Coan to be out-played on the practice field this spring.
“What do we want from Drew Pyne? We want Drew to be the starter,” Kelly said. “We’re not handing this job to Jack Coan. Drew’s been in the program. We want him to be competing for the starting position and they’ll have an opportunity to do that where they get first-team reps.”
Buchner, the long-time verbal commitment to the Irish, has played just one season of high school football in the last three. Had he chosen to remain at Helix High School in San Diego as opposed to enrolling early at Notre Dame, he would be playing in his senior year right now as California began its “2020 season” a couple of weeks ago.
So there’s ground to be made up. But if the clips of Buchner proved anything Saturday, it’s that he’s regained the throwing motion that earned him his original five-star acclaim from 247Sports and that when he gets on top of the football – as he did Saturday – he can deliver accurate and deep throws to the Irish receivers.
“Tyler just got here and hasn’t played football for a year,” Kelly said. “So you’ve got to understand there is some development that has to take place there.
“He had a nice practice (Saturday). But he doesn’t know our offense. The basics were what he was trying to feel good about. He’s got some work to do from that perspective. But he’s a quick study. He’s a really good athlete.”
The fourth member of the Notre Dame quarterback room – red-shirt sophomore Brendon Clark – will have to wait at least until this summer to begin competing for the job. Clark, who missed the end of the 2020 season with knee problems stemming from an ACL surgery during his high school days, underwent surgery shortly before the Rose Bowl.
Kelly said Clark may begin throwing the football this spring, but he’ll need the six months (in June) recovery time before he’ll truly be back in the mix.
In the meantime, it’s still Coan’s job to lose – or for Pyne or Buchner to win – moving forward.
“His work ethic is outstanding,” said Kelly of Coan. “We knew a lot of that about him already, so he came in here and has done extremely well because he’s been authentic, he’s been who he is and he hasn’t tried to pretend.
“Naturally, leadership will follow that position and that’s kind of what’s happened.”
