Notre Dame Football: 5 takeaways from the 2021 Blue-Gold Game

Notre Dame Football: 5 takeaways from the 2021 Blue-Gold Game

Hello, Tyler Buchner

To hear it be told all Spring, highly ranked early enrollee Tyler Buchner has been a step behind his peers at quarterback, Jack Coan, and Drew Pyne. That’s not all that much of a surprise, though. Buchner’s senior season of high school was wiped out due to the pandemic.

Now he has to adjust to the speed of the college game against the Irish defense, which is among the best in all of college football.

Except, Buchner didn’t look so rough during the Blue-Gold Game. In fact, he was the most impressive of any of the Notre Dame quarterbacks, which is saying something given that Coan lead Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl, and Pyne was also highly recruited and has experience in the system.

Still, Buchner put together a stat line that went 6-9 for 140 yards and a rushing touchdown. No one scored a touchdown on a drive that Buchner was not the quarterback for.

It certainly wasn’t a perfect day for Buchner, who did look a little out of sync at times. Still, more often than not Buchner was a threat to the White team defense. He seemed to have good chemistry with Braden Lenzy, who he hit twice, including on a deep ball, on one of the two touchdown drives that he led.

Meanwhile, his touchdown run showed off his toughness, as Buchner dove into the endzone and took a shot to the ribs to score.

All in all, you still can’t expect Buchner to do more than take a redshirt this season while he adjusts to the next level, but this was a big confidence booster for the future of Notre Dame at the quarterback position.