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Off-Season Hot Takes
Welcome to Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Positional Hot Takes. As a reminder to all of the readers, this is HEAVILY driven by you and comments are strongly encouraged. The thought here is to bring in your HOT takes only as this is the off season. The payoff will be much longer, but these pages will live in perpetuity (big word) for you to tell your friends, family, and strangers that you, “called it”. Since this isn’t geared towards specific games (there will be Hot/Cold takes for the Spring Game), I will go position by position with my own takes, starting with Quarterback.
As a reminder, these are meant to be bold and spicy, so let’s get the rolllling.
Quarterback
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One of the biggest positions in college football is quarterback at Notre Dame. After losing the winningest QB in school history in Ian Book, and a transitional (but very solid) QB in Jack Coan, the Irish will be led by a first time starter. This will be the first, “college start” for a Notre Dame quarterback since 2017, and it will be in Columbus. The two very obvious options are presumed starter Tyler Buchner followed by fiery backup Drew Pyne. They both are big energy guys who appear to have, “it” factors. Pyne with his swagger and leadership and Buchner with his raw skills and playmaking ability.
Hot Take
Drew Pyne will lead the Irish to at least 2 victories
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Pyne is a gamer. I hate describing, “intangibles”, but he has intangibles and still has a role to play in the Irish offense. This isn’t a knock on Buchner, but first time starters need relief, and offenses sometimes need a change of pace. Pyne is a bit of a mix of Ian Book and Tommy Rees to some degree, and could play a similar, “relief” role that they’ve played situationally. With Buchner, there are definitely going to be some inconsistent moments as well as the possibility of getting a bit banged up. I think he will rely too much on his feet at times, which is totally understandable. I hope he focuses on sliding and protecting himself, but the playmaker in him will probably be a bit reckless in year 1. Pyne will step in with some late game heroics, or lead a game that Buchner is simply banged up for. In many QB rooms, this wouldn’t work, but with this room, I think it will. Last year, all three guys played significant roles, and managed to be supportive through it all. This is rare and speaks volumes to the culture Rees has put into place. QB will be fun this year, very fun.