Notre Dame Football: It's time to apologize to Ian Book

The Notre Dame football program is one of the best in the country in 2020, and a lot of that has to do with the play of veteran QB Ian Book.

Quarterbacks always get too much praise or criticism, depending on their offense’s success, and that’s only magnified at a national brand like Notre Dame. So, when Ian Book started this season struggling to throw for 150 yards a game, there were calls to send him to the bench.

Fans moaned about how this couldn’t possibly be the best option Notre Dame had at quarterback, and they complained that Phil Jurkovec would have been better.

It’s time to start apologizing to Ian Book for all of that.

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Now, in his third season as the starting quarterback in South Bend, Book has a 28-3 record. He’s second all-time in touchdowns at Notre Dame for a career with 68, and his 7,935 yards are third all-time. He’s within spitting shot of Jimmy Clausen’s 8,148 for second place on that record too, and after already taking Notre Dame to the College Football Playoff in 2018, and he’s on pace to do it again in 2020.

Despite Book’s win totals and stats being among the best ever for an Irish quarterback, he has never gotten the respect he’s due.

Expectations have been so high, so consistently, that fans forget to appreciate when they get to watch a great team and a great quarterback. This isn’t a Charlie Weis coached team going .500, or Arnaz Battle trying to throw the ball all over the field.

This is a legitimately good quarterback who wins almost all the time.

In the past two weeks Book has beaten the top-ranked Clemson Tigers, who he lost to in the 2018 Cotton Bowl, and rival Boston College. More than just beating a rival school, beating Boston College meant beating Jurkovec, who critics of Book were bemoaning the loss of less than a month ago.

By beating Clemson he did more than avenge one of his three losses as a starting quarterback, he put Notre Dame over a hump that they haven’t gotten over since the 1990s.

Next. Notre Dame football: Offensive grades vs. Boston College. dark

Now, he has a chance to go on a tear in the College Football Playoff, and possibly become the first Notre Dame quarterback to win a National Championship since Tony Rice. If he does that, Book could immortalize himself in the program’s lock and storied history.

With all that being said, it’s probably best to start working on an apology to Ian Book.

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Notre Dame Football: It’s time to apologize to Ian Book

By Daniel Morrison | Nov 17, 2020

The Notre Dame football program is one of the best in the country in 2020, and a lot of that has to do with the play of veteran QB Ian Book.

More from Slap the Sign