Notre Dame football: 3 reasons the Irish made the right decision at QB
Notre Dame football: 3 reasons the Irish made the right decision at QB
Coan Earned the Job
Everyone knows that Jack Coan was brought into Notre Dame to act as a stopgap between Ian Book and Tyler Buchner, but the truth is that this job wasn’t given to Coan. He received a legitimate challenge from not just Buchner, but last season’s backup in Drew Pyne as well.
As recently as this week, Pyne was working with the first-team offense, so this was a legitimate competition into the summer.
None of this is to say that Coan doesn’t have some obvious limitations at quarterback. At the end of the day, Book was a more mobile option, and no one is going to confuse Coan with a Sam Howell-type pocket passer.
Still, he is the best option that the team has available to them right now, and he proved that this offseason.
Make no mistake, this competition isn’t over either. Coan was named the starter now so that he can focus on building chemistry and not looking over his shoulder at the young guns behind him. But, if Coan comes out and struggles early, there is a good chance that he finds a seat on the bench.
Kelly has been willing to bench even winning quarterbacks for a better option in the past, and there is no reason to think that he won’t if there is a better option available. In the same vein, even though Coan was brought in as a grad transfer, he had to prove he was the best option to get to this point.