How Jack Coan turned a difficult task into an ‘epiphany’ for Irish offense
Tyler Buchner was cleared to go back in the game, even though he hobbled off the field with an apparent ankle injury moments prior.
The freshman quarterback had just thrown his second interception in three drives in Notre Dame’s game at Virginia Tech Oct. 9, which he entered in place of graduate student starter Jack Coan after three listless possessions. Buchner had his longest leash yet. And he pulled the offense out of its prolonged stagnation before the two second-half miscues.
Notre Dame trailed 29-21 with 3:55 to go after a Virginia Tech touchdown. It needed points and needed them fast. Stick with Buchner, right? Missteps aside, he was responsible for all the scoring drives. The Coan-led offense, meanwhile, had generated 10 points in its last 16 drives, including eight straight scoreless possessions. Head coach Brian Kelly saw it differently.
“There was a conversation about, ‘Is Tyler good to go?’ Our medical staff said he is,” Kelly said. “Then we said, ‘No, this moment’s for Jack.’ He was coming back in the game.”
With that, the twice-benched starter took the field.
Coaches and players publicly say they expected all along Coan would lead two scoring drives and deliver a 32-29 comeback win. But with each passing week of functional offense under Coan’s command, it’s hard not to take them at their word. It’s re-enforced upon a deeper probe into why Coan could, quite literally, pick himself up off the turf and offer something different.
Those two drives turned into a jumping-off point for an offensive identity that has proved sustainable, at least against the schedule Notre Dame has played. Out went the downfield-oriented, long-developing plays. In came a quick passing game and higher-tempo attack. The moment called for both. Notre Dame has stuck with that approach.
“The epiphany for us was the Virginia Tech game where we put him back in,” Kelly said. “We get him in the two-minute and now he looks great. We’re like, ‘We’ve got this figured out. Let’s shorten his drop, get his feet moving quickly and get him through his progressions.”
Notre Dame won that game, and the next four, with Coan in the middle of that success. Since his re-entry, he had completed 81 of 110 throws (73.6 percent) for 896 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. Notre Dame is getting what it envisioned from Coan, even if it took the Lewis and Clark route to get there. And even if that journey reached an unexpected destination. Coan has processed everything without breaking stride.
“They’ve put that plan on the field for us,” Coan said. “It’s our job to go execute it.”
'He's never out of the game'
A month later, some fascinating questions remain from that night. How could Coan shake off two straight removals and suddenly transform from apparent hindrance to helping hand? A benched quarterback is rarely tasked with trying to win a game from which he was pulled without an injury to his replacement. Why did Notre Dame feel comfortable asking that of Coan? Why were teammates and coaches unwavering in their belief he could do it?
Start by asking his primary competitor.
“He was more than I could ever ask for in that game,” Buchner said. “Every time I’d come off the sideline, we would talk, and he’d help me out. There’s a great photo of all the quarterbacks after the first touchdown drive when we came off showing how we were all really excited.”
One week earlier, after his benching in the Irish’s loss to Cincinnati, the NBC broadcast captured a moment where Buchner, Coan and sophomore backup Drew Pyne were laughing and smiling together following a Pyne-led touchdown drive. Coan never mailed it in mentally or retreated to a lonely corner on the sideline.
“The key to that game was he’s never out of the game,” said Rob Hoss, Coan’s coach at Sayville (N.Y.) High. “Even when they take him out, he’s engaged.”
The competitive side that never wants to come off the field takes a backseat to his desire for Notre Dame’s success. This is who Coan has always been, as Hoss can attest.
“Jack could have broken every record in the history of New York state football, but I would take him out at halftime,” Hoss said. “Like, ‘Listen Jack, I know you could break records today and you threw seven touchdowns in the game.’ It was, ‘Coach, whatever’s best for the team.’”
Of course, it’s easier to swallow a removal when your team leads by four touchdowns at halftime than one prompted by the offense running in mud. But it was still useful training for years later. Coan was ready for that moment in Blacksburg because, in a way, he never left the game. His teammates couldn’t help but notice.
“When I saw Jack warm up before the second-to-last drive, I looked him in the eye and I knew we were going to win that game,” senior center Jarrett Patterson said. “He had that killer instinct in his eye. I’m like, ‘Jack’s going to get this done for us. We better protect our asses off.’”
In that win, Notre Dame found a path forward on offense and a moment its quarterback could use a spark.
“I think it has helped,” Coan said. "Whenever you have success in whatever drives you get in, it helps give you confidence. It helped me for the next week.”
Finding something sustainable
The shift to a hurry-up, quick-release offense was unforeseen in the context of Notre Dame’s season opener at Florida State Sept. 5, when Coan threw for 366 yards and four touchdowns in a vertical-based attack. He threw eight passes that traveled 20 yards downfield.
He was, though, sacked four times that night. In the games that followed, the downfield completions dried up while the sacks only increased. Through Week 5, no FBS quarterback had been sacked more times than Coan (21). Folks back on Long Island in Coan’s hometown wondered if Notre Dame’s offensive approach was the right one given the turnover on the offensive line and Coan’s limited mobility.
Something had to give. At first, that was Coan when Kelly pulled him. Then, it was the identity. One reason going up-tempo worked versus Virginia Tech and beyond was because Coan had done it before.
“In the four years Jack started for me, he never took a snap under center,” Hoss said. “Everything was in the shotgun. We ran regular tempo, we ran hurry-up and what we call warp-speed — we’re repeating the play and going right now.”
Starting with Virginia Tech, Coan’s average release time was 2.5 seconds or fewer in three straight games before a 3.02-second blip against Navy. It was 2.72 at Virginia. He had zero 2.5-second or faster games in the Irish’s first five outings and just one less than 2.65 seconds.
His average depth of target in the first four games post-Virginia Tech was 7.1 yards, but despite the shorter throws, he has averaged 8.15 yards per attempt in that span. He has taken just four sacks.
All the while, Buchner remains entrenched in the offense because he opens up the run-game playbook in a way Coan can’t. Coan was on board with Buchner’s initial involvement, which began in Week 2 against Toledo. He didn’t have a choice, of course, but he could help by being a sounding board for Buchner. He’s good with it now, just like he was with the identify shift.
“None of this happens unless it’s with the student-athlete,” Kelly said. “It’s the player who has to be able to make some significant changes. Some of the things he had been doing had been successful for him. He was a successful Big Ten quarterback who had a lot of wins. Extremely coachable.
“It was then finding what he brought to the table.”
Now that Notre Dame discovered it, the discussion around Coan has a refreshed tenor. No one is propping him up as an All-American, but the narrative is less about what he can’t do and more about how he has fit into the Irish’s success. Without constant mention of an unproductive run game when he plays and his lack of mobility, his quick decision-making and sound timing are easier to spot.
“I love what they’re doing,” Hoss said, “and there’s no doubt he’s comfortable in that.”
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