Tyler Buchner's injury leaves Notre Dame offense in Drew Pyne's hands
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — First-year head coach Marcus Freeman will have to dig Notre Dame out of its 0-2 hole to start the season without its starting quarterback.
Freeman started his Monday press conference announcing the severity of sophomore Tyler Buchner’s injury to his left shoulder — a high-grade AC sprain that will require surgery Tuesday and an estimated recovery timeline of roughly four months — and spent a large portion of the rest of the press conference answering questions about what Notre Dame’s offense will look like moving forward with junior Drew Pyne stepping into the starting role.
Because Notre Dame’s woes have been widespread, Freeman had plenty of other questions to answer about a team that found an unexpected low Saturday in a 26-21 home loss to Marshall and the third defeat of his three-game tenure. Freeman’s belief in Pyne went hand-in-hand with his insistence that better days are coming for this Irish team.
“We are still very positive and optimistic about our future moving forward,” Freeman said. “And with Drew Pyne leading our offense, I’m excited about his opportunity and what he is going to be able to present to our football team.”
Both Freeman and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees expressed on the day Buchner was named the starting quarterback in preseason camp how important Pyne’s role would be in the 2022 season. They didn’t know when or how much he would be needed, but they expected his number to be called at some point given the nature of the game.
The 6-foot, 198-pound Pyne wasn’t able to rescue Notre Dame in the final three-plus minutes against Marshall following Buchner’s injury. His test will continue when the Irish host California (2-0) on Saturday (2:30 p.m. EDT on NBC).
It will be Pyne’s first career start after making relief appearances in seven games since the start of his career. Only three of those appearances were sustained in high-leverage moments. Pyne helped Notre Dame close out a 41-13 victory over Wisconsin last season, and he couldn’t complete comeback efforts against Cincinnati last season or Marshall on Saturday.
In those three games, Pyne combined for 18-of-36 passing (50%) for 244 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. His nine carries accounted for one net yard.
The biggest difference between Pyne and the 6-1, 215-pound Buchner is their ability as runners. Buchner finished last season as Notre Dame’s second-leading rusher in a limited role with 336 yards on 46 carries (7.3 yards per carry) and three touchdowns. Through two games this season, Buchner led the Irish in carries (24), rushing yards (62) and rushing touchdowns (2).
"The major difference is probably the straight-line speed,” Freeman said of the contrast between Buchner and Pyne. “Tyler Buchner is maybe a 4.5 (seconds) guy (in the 40-yard dash). He can run in a straight line.
“Drew's athletic, but he's not straight line as fast as Tyler. The ability to pull the ball on zone reads to make a team respect you as a quarterback being able to run the ball is something that Drew can do. The passing game, I don’t see much difference. I don't see much change in that package. But what exact runs are we going to have him do in the run game?"
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Buchner started the season 28-of-50 passing (56%) for 378 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. That’s not exactly a high bar for Pyne to meet. Of course, Buchner’s passing threat wasn’t enough for the Irish to win either of their games either. Not that he was getting much help in the running game outside of his own production.
Pyne will almost certainly need even more support than Buchner received the first two weeks from his offensive teammates. That doesn’t mean Freeman expects the offense to be called entirely different with Pyne behind center.
What should come naturally for Pyne is his ability to lead and get his teammates to rally around it him. That was evident particularly in last season’s appearance against Wisconsin.
"You're thrust into a leadership position when you're a quarterback, and you want people to be able to follow you — not just through your actions, but maybe through your words and who you are as a leader,” Freeman said. “He's a natural leader, has a lot of the natural QB traits that you're looking for. I don't see the offense changing (in) extreme amounts.
“We're still going to be able to do some of the QB runs that we did with Tyler and obviously the passing game, we'll continue to enhance it and figure out ways to be more consistent in it and put him in a situation to, hopefully, have more completions.”
Rivals rated Pyne as a four-star recruit coming out of New Canaan (Conn.) High and ranked him as the No. 7 pro-style quarterback and No. 118 overall prospect in the 2018 class. Those who question Pyne’s ability to be a difference maker for Notre Dame tend to point to a lack of physical traits that allow him to overcome less-than-ideal height.
The way Freeman responded when asked to identify the physical skills in which Pyne is strongest on the field didn’t exactly put those questions to rest. It took Freeman close to six seconds filled with an “umm” and “I don’t know” before getting into his answer.
“He has a strong arm. I believe in that,” Freeman said. “Probably the best is his decision making. That's what you have to hope out of your quarterback. Do they make the right decisions? Do they take care of the football? And do they make plays? I think he does make the right decisions.
“We have to put him in a position to make the right decisions. That's what I hope that we see out of Drew Pyne as we move forward. He makes the right decisions, takes care of the ball and then the third part will happen, the making the plays part.”
Notre Dame will also need to accelerate the preparation of freshman quarterback Steve Angeli, who was officially listed as Pyne’s backup on Notre Dame’s depth chart Monday. The former three-star quarterback from Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic met the moment with success in April's Blue-Gold Game, which ended with a diving touchdown run to give the Gold team a victory in the spring intra-squad scrimmage.
The stakes will be raised if the 6-2, 211-pound Angeli is needed to play on any of the coming Saturdays this season. Angeli has been elevated this week from scout team to receiving roughly 40% of the practice reps as the No. 2 quarterback.
"I spent some time obviously on scout team,” Freeman said. “I’ve been trying to be pretty involved with those guys, especially scout-team offense. And so, Steve is another guy who has natural leadership traits about him. He took ownership of that scout-team offense and that was good to see. He has a strong arm.
“It’s a little bit different when you’re looking at a card versus you’re going to have to read the defense, get the signals, put the guys in the right position. So, (Sunday) was the first day that he was running with the 2s in practice, but I have a lot of confidence in Steve Angeli and he’s a freshman.
“He made a lot of progress from the start of spring ‘til the end of spring and even fall camp. I’m sure he’ll be meeting extra with coach Rees, and Drew will be pulling him along and helping him along. And Tyler Buchner — that’s going to become his role now. You have to become a coach and you have to somehow make our team better, even though you’re not going to be playing.”
By all accounts, Pyne embraced his role when he lost the starting quarterback battle to Buchner a year after losing the battle to Jack Coan. How Pyne handle that news this August has given Freeman confidence he will rise to the occasion as the starter.
"It's what I've seen from the minute that I told him he wasn't going to be QB1,” Freeman said. “I remember that conversation in my office, and I told him that we made a decision, but I've never been a part of a program where you haven't used more than one quarterback throughout the course of the season.
“I didn’t know when his time was going to come, but I knew it was going to come at some point. And here it is.
“But he's always prepared like the starter. He's prepared like a pro. That's who Drew Pyne is.”
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