Notre Dame entered the 2021 season with a starting quarterback: Wisconsin transfer Jack Coan. Now entering Week 6 in a gut-check game at Virginia Tech, Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly has to settle what has become a quarterback carousel and choose a starter from one of three players: Coan, second-year freshman Drew Pyne and true freshman Tyler Buchner.
Playing at Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium following a 24-13 loss to Cincinnati in Week 5 isn’t exactly the best time to be reshuffling the QB depth chart. Nevertheless, the competition remains open — at least publicly. Kelly said this week that “the guys know” who will start at quarterback against the Hokies, but he declined to say who it will be.
“Going on the road in the environment we’re in was a factor,” Kelly said, per Irish Illustrated. “Mobility is a bit of a factor. It needed to be evaluated. Then, certainly, grading out. I think from our overall perspective, of the guys, who gives us the best chance to win? This is still about winning football games. When we added all those things up, that’s how we came up with a decision.”
Through five games, a Notre Dame offensive line that saw three starters from last year’s team selected in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft has allowed nearly as many sacks (22) as it did all of last season (25). The running game has also screeched to a halt, despite the presence of superstar running back Kyren Williams, leaving the Fighting Irish in dire need of an offensive spark.
It’s possible Coan starts against the Hokies, but here’s what a quarterback change could look like.
The case for Drew Pyne
Notre Dame’s offensive woes didn’t suddenly dissipate when Pyne entered the second half of the Cincinnati game, but he at least got the offense moving after Coan and Buchner failed to generate any points. Pyne led a pair of touchdown drives, including an eight-play, 80-yard series in the fourth quarter that brought the game to 17-13.
There was a comical moment in the third quarter when Pyne momentarily lined up behind his left guard instead of the center, but before you knock him for that miscue, or his 9-of-22 passing mark in the game, remember that he was thrust into a game vs. a top-10 opponent with just four games under his belt. Considering the circumstances, he performed admirably while bringing an element of mobility that Coan cannot. No one is going to mistake Pyne for Johnny Manziel, but he demonstrated his athleticism against a quality Bearcats defense by escaping the pocket an 11-yard run that helped set up the Fighting Irish’s first touchdown in the third quarter.
Though Pyne is undersized, he was clocked at 4.7 seconds in the 40-yard dash while emerging a four-star prospect in the 2020. He is not an elite pocket passer, but his versatility makes him capable of masking some of the offensive line’s deficiencies. As he showed last week, he can make big plays in big moments.
Why Tyler Buchner should get a look
There isn’t really an “easy” game left on Notre Dame’s schedule to give the starting job to a true freshman. Still, Kelly has showed he’s not afraid to work in the talented top-100 prospect from the 2021 class. Buchner has played in three games and enjoyed a solid debut appearance against Toledo in Week 2 while playing in temporary relief of Coan.
For now, Buchner appears pegged into a run-first role as more of a wrinkle in Notre Dame’s attack. It’s a role Buchner is poised to thrive in during the season’s second half. After playing five teams that rank in the top 55 nationally in yards allowed per rush, only one of the Fighting Irish’s final seven opponents — Navy — can say the same. In fact, future Notre Dame opponents Virginia and Stanford rank 113th and 112th in yards allowed per rush. That should allow Buchner to make some plays if Notre Dame keeps giving him reps.
“We need an established, singular offensive structure,” Kelly said. “But if we feel like we need to add to it to be better at moving the football, I wouldn’t say Tyler Buchner is out of the options of playing in any game this year.”
Still, there’s Coan
In a year when many programs returned a majority of their starters, Notre Dame replaced nearly every key offensive contributor from its playoff-bound 2020 team. That’s why it made sense for Kelly to name Coan as the starting quarterback in mid-August. An experienced Wisconsin transfer, Coan provided a steady plug-and-play option. He was type of player that could bridge the gap as the offense moved on from long-time starter Ian Book.
And, as Coan showed early on, he could give the Irish offense the deep ball element that wasn’t always there before. But he has been sacked so frequently that he’s netted -74 rushing yards this season, which drags the team’s net rushing average down to an abysmal 2.4 yards per carry.
It’s not that Coan should be turned into a scapegoat for Notre Dame’s offensive struggles, but the problem is that he can’t give much else at a time when the offense desperately needs it. Instead, this is about the dynamic element that Pyne or Buchner can bring to a group that is ill-equipped to provide a player like Coan the time for success in the pocket that he enjoyed at Wisconsin.
If not this week, the team’s upcoming bye week after playing Virginia would provide a nice buffer for a transition under center before the Fighting Irish host USC on Oct. 23.
