Notre Dame Football: Where does Ian Book rank compared to opposing quarterbacks?

Notre Dame football will play a host of talented quarterbacks this season, but how does Ian Book stack up to his best quarterback competition?

As they always do, the Notre Dame football team plays a schedule that features some of the nation’s most talented players. Recently, Slap the Sign ranked the top 5 quarterbacks that the Irish would face this season.

As we know, Ian Book is no slouch of a quarterback in his own right. That said, in those rankings, where would the Notre Dame signal-caller fall?

Ian Book enters the season as a point of contention among Irish fans. While some are ardent members of “the Book club,” others have been critical of Book’s play, at times. In fact, after struggling in a loss at Michigan last season, many called for Book’s job in favor of Phil Jurkovec, who ended up transferring at the end of the season.

However, Book resurrected his game in a come-from-behind win against Virginia Tech and finished the season on a strong note. There is no doubt that he is the starter.

When comparing Book to his quarterback counterparts, it would seem obvious that Trevor Lawrence, the nation’s best quarterback, has a tremendous edge. But after Lawrence, Book starts to enter into the conversation.

Looking strictly at the stats, USC’s Kedon Slovis (perhaps the next best quarterback Notre Dame will see this season) probably has a slight edge on Book in terms of passing stats. Slovis threw for 3500 yards and completed 72% of his passes last season, whereas Book threw for 3000 yards and completed about 60% of his passes. However, Book threw for more touchdowns (34) than Slovis (30) and threw fewer interceptions (6) than Slovis threw at USC (9).

On the ground, Book ran for over 500 yards and 4 touchdowns a season ago, while Slovis was in the negatives in rushing yards and did not find the endzone.

In short, Book and Slovis stack up pretty well against each other in terms of production. Of course, it was Book’s team who won the head-to-head matchup in what proved to be an interesting game in South Bend a season ago.

The good news is this: Notre Dame will have a decided edge in quarterback play in about 10 of their games this season and probably has a disadvantage in only one. It should be a good year for the Irish offense.