10 ways Notre Dame Football can make it back to the College Football Playoff

10 ways Notre Dame Football can make it back to the College Football Playoff

2. Find a Quarterback

The last team to win a National Championship without an elite quarterback was the 2015 Alabama team, led by Jake Coker. That Crimson Tide team was an outlier, and the end of a dying breed of team.

Besides Coker, the rest of Alabama was a dominant team. A few short years later, the game has changed, and you almost need to be a high flying offense that scores 30+ points a game to win a National Championship. Take out the National Champions, there have been few teams to make the CFP at all without an elite quarterback.

Even a Jake Fromm at Georgia was worthy of playing in the NFL.

In other words, you better have a special signal-caller if you want to make the CFP.

Ian Book was the best quarterback Notre Dame has had since Brady Quinn, and he was good enough to get them to the College Football Playoff. Now, they need to find a quarterback at least as good or better than Book to make the CFP going forward.

Hopefully, Tyler Buchner fits that mold.

Here’s the issue. We don’t know Buchner will fit that mold. In fact, he almost certainly won’t as a freshman in 2021. That’s why Brian Kelly is bringing in graduate transfer Jack Coan, to bridge the gap between Book and Buchner.

Coan, likely, isn’t good enough to bring the Irish back to the Playoff, but they’ll be good with him. Hopefully, Buchner is that guy who is good enough to dominate for the Irish, otherwise, Kelly needs to keep looking as Notre Dame watches from the outside looking in on the CFP.