Notre Dame started the season 2-0 before a COVID-19 outbreak forced the Fighting Irish to prematurely pause the season. Now, the team is hoping to resume play on Oct. 10 against Florida State.
This provides a small sample size to go off of thus far, but it's already clear there are a few areas where the Fighting Irish could improve going forward and one area of strength.
Below are offensive observations from Notre Dame’s performance two games into the season.
Book Must Improve On Short Throws
A lot is made out of fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book’s erratic pocket presence and arm strength that comes up short when compared to future first-round picks in Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State’s Justin Fields.
There is merit to the notion that Book, on occasion, has happy feet in the pocket, but Book actually excelled on deep throws in 2019 and he hasn't exactly had the personnel or opportunities in two games this season to adequately determine if he's regressed in this facet of his game or not.
But one area Book absolutely needs to clean up, as Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly likes to put it, is on his “layups.”
Book started nine games in 2018 and broke the Notre Dame single-season record for completion percentage by hitting on 68.2 percent of his throws. But in 2019, he regressed to a pedestrian 60.2 completion percentage.
