Notre Dame Football: Ian Book disrespected in PFF’s quarterback rankings

Notre Dame football has a special quarterback in Ian Book, but according to one national publication, he is not one of the top-25 in the country.

Notre Dame football starting quarterback was included in the top 30 of Pro Football Focus’ latest college quarterback rankings. However, he was not ranked nearly as high as I was expecting.

Pro Football Focus released their official rankings of all 127 FBS quarterbacks this week. Notre Dame starting quarterback Ian Book was ranked 29th on that list.

We will delve into the reasons why I believe that ranking is utter trash. First, let us take a look at the reasons the writer from Pro Football Focus gave to explain why Book was ranked where he is.

"There were some massive concerns with Notre Dame’s quarterback situation leading up to the program’s game against Clemson, as Ian Book wasn’t performing at a level that could get the Irish to CFP-contention status. He put together just a 60.3 passing grade in his first six starts against middling defenses but balled out against the Tigers in Week 10 — his 90.7 passing grade that game was the highest of his career against a Power 5 school. He continued that caliber of play this week against Boston College, as Book came away with his second-best passing grade of the season and led the Irish to the third-most efficient passing offense in the Power 5. His reluctance to throw the ball downfield has disappeared, and he has gotten his accuracy back to the level it was back in 2019. Book’s negatively graded throw rate ranks first among the 39 qualifying Power 5 quarterbacks over the last two weeks."

Let us break down this evaluation.

First, the author comes right out of the gates with hyperbole, a key ingredient for all unbiased analysis.

Then, the author talks about the first six games of the season where Book’s play was underwhelming against average defenses. Finally, the author gives Book credit for his stellar play during the last two weeks.

The criticism of Book’s performance during the first six games of the season is fair. Notre Dame did not play many great defenses during that stretch. However, it does not appear that the author applied those same standards to the 28 players ranked ahead of Book.