The Triple Option: Notre Dame’s Ian Book is now a feared deep ball thrower

Welcome to the Triple Option on One Foot Down. We have a little more itch on our skin now that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have a plan for a return to football — but more on that in a moment.

Before we get rolling, I want to give a special shout out to all of those at The Athletic that were let go today (46). Pete Sampson was not one of the 46. Things are rough out there, and it got equally rough for our SBN friends as well. Basically all of those that were furloughed at the beginning of May will no longer be with SBN moving forward — again — rough day.

Let’s go...

IAN BOOK THE LAUNCHER

Much of the criticism about Ian Book before the 2019 season was attached to his success as a deep ball thrower. The spring game highlighted that weakness, and the 2019 season — although much better — still was less than what many had hoped for. Pro Football Focus, however, sees Ian Book as one of the better deep ball throwers in college football.

SPEAKING OF PFF

Pro Football Focus also has Liam Eichenberg rated as the 5th best tackle in the country right now. Much like Mike McGlinchey did — if Eichenberg gets rid of his false start issues, he should end up being one of the best on the country and drafted fairly high in the NFL Draft.

A MORE DETAILED APPROACH

I published the quick details about Notre Dame’s return to campus on Thursday night. South Bend Tribune / ND Insider Eric Hansen provides a little more context to the situation at hand.

CONTINUING TO RIDE THE BOOK FAIR TO GREATNESS

ISD’s Jamie Uyeyama put up an excellent post full of thoughts yesterday that I think everyone should read — especially with so many of us relying on PFF for non-basic stats.

AN AUDIBLE

Just thought I’d throw an extra one in today. The preview mags are starting to come out, but here’s a short bit about Notre Dame from Brad Powers (Used to work for Phil Steele).