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You don’t need me to remind you — no college football fan has witnessed a season like 2020. You have the global spread of a novel disease, Notre Dame jerseys with conference patches, dogs and cats living together, MASS HYSTERIA!
Despite the chaos of the season, Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans, in particular, have reason to be hyped. Specifically, they have a quarterback well worth the excitement. In the first two games of the season, Book showed defining tenacity and proved his impact.
Getting Back Out There
Book may have had difficulty adapting to a shaky Irish O line during the Duke game, but did score one touchdown against the Blue Devils. On adjusting back into play, Book said, “I don’t know if it’s what I expected, but I planned on going in there and feeling great from the get-go. I feel like I had a little bit of a slow start, but the team carried me for a little bit and I felt like I got back to where I wanted to be, and the receivers did an unbelievable job of making plays for me.”
Head coach Brian Kelly highlighted the Irish quarterback’s characteristic adrenaline following the Duke game during a press conference and said, “From my perspective, watching him this week, he fully understands how some of those smaller plays turn into big ones. He has to make those for us, and I think he will.”
Solidifying Strategy
In Notre Dame’s 52-0 showing against the University of South Florida Bulls, Book set the tone at the start and snagged three rushing touchdowns and completed 12 of 19 passes for 143 yards.
On leading the team to the win, Book said, “We wanted to win the one on one matchup. We knew they might come down and press and play man on third down. We wanted to win that and then we wanted to just win the line of scrimmage and do that by running the ball.”
Kelly said in a press conference following the USF game, “I thought his pocket presence was so much more improved than the week before… calm in the pocket, settled in the pocket.”
In all, Book has Kelly’s faith behind him and seems to be getting into a good flow. Irish fans should expect to see the quarterback feel more at ease and keep the determination going.
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