SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Drew Pyne is living his dream.
Certainly, the details of how his opportunity to become Notre Dame’s starting quarterback weren’t necessarily part of the ideal scenario concocted in his head as a lifelong Irish football fan.
Those details won’t allow this week to provide Pyne with many “pinch-me” moments. That’s why any time his mind starts to float toward the weight of his circumstance, he chooses to dig deeper into film study.
“Anytime that anything starts to become somewhat overwhelming, I go straight to watching film,” Pyne said. “Like (Monday) night, I was starting to think about everything that's going on, and I go, ‘All right, I'm going to go watch film.’
“Because what's important is going and playing Saturday and playing well and being as prepared as I possibly can.”
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Notre Dame (0-2) needs Pyne to do more than just replicate what injured starting quarterback Tyler Buchner did the first two games. Though Buchner may have been asked to do too much as the leading rusher in the Irish offense, the sum of the last two games put Notre Dame at No. 117 out of 131 FBS teams in scoring offense (15.5 points per game) and total offense (302 yards per game).
Pyne won’t be asked to carry the ball in the same ways Buchner did, but he will be asked to lean on his own strengths when the Irish take on California (2-0) in Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday (2:30 p.m. EDT on NBC).
“I don’t want to give out too much here, but we know what he’s good at,” said offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. “He knows what he’s good at. We have to make sure that he keeps that in the front of the mind.
“I have to call a game that highlights that. I’m not going into the details of what those things are. We know plays, we know concepts, we know things that we refer to as blankets. There’s a certain comfort level there when you call it.
“So we have to put him in as many of those positions as we can while also attacking what Cal does defensively.”
Pyne spent more time in the Guglielmino Athletics Complex on Monday, a day off from practice, than he did at home or in class. That was even with his mother in town on a previously planned visit. He did have time to eat her homecooked meal of spaghetti and meatballs.
“It was fantastic,” Pyne said.
The two might not spend as much time together as previously planned. Pyne’s trying to block out the outside noise as much as possible. He joked about wanting to throw his phone away to start the week. If all his focus leads to an opportunity to celebrate together with his mother after a win Saturday, it will be well worth the time spent away from each other.
Despite being a junior, Pyne entered the season with less game experience than Buchner, a sophomore. Buchner’s role as a change-of-pace quarterback last season provided him more opportunities to learn on the field. Pyne’s only meaningful action prior to filling in for Buchner in the fourth quarter against Marshall were relief performances against Wisconsin and Cincinnati last season. Pyne also played two snaps in the third quarter of Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Alabama following the 2020 regular season after Ian Book took a big hit.
“Every game I've ever played in here, it's all been a learning experience,” Pyne said. “From last year to even my freshman year when I got thrown in against Alabama, it's all a learning experience. I'm going to take last week, I'm going to take every game I played in here, learn from it and get better.”
Pyne will enter Saturday with a résumé that includes 20-of-39 passing (51.3%) for 256 yards and three touchdowns with one interception and 10 carries for five yards in seven games played. Most of his learning has come in the film room and on the practice field.
In the spring, Pyne started to really obsess over studying the game. With the help of Rees, Pyne started to understand the offense better, understand opposing defenses better and anticipate why plays would or wouldn’t work.
But it still resulted in an underwhelming Blue-Gold Game performance (13-of-23 for 129 passing yards and two interceptions) in which he was asked to play for both teams with Buchner sidelined due to an ankle injury. Then Pyne learned two weeks into preseason practice in August that he lost the starting quarterback competition to Buchner.
When asked a month later what his reaction to that news was, his first response was disappointed. Then he offered a different take.
“You know what? Erase the disappointed part, because I wasn't disappointed. I was actually very proud,” Pyne said. “I was very proud of how I played in camp. I was very proud of how I prepared and attacked every single day for two weeks of camp. I put my heart and soul into camp.”
The hurt lasted for a day or two, Pyne said, but he was determined to keep himself ready when needed. The unrelenting determination of the 6-foot, 198-pound Pyne is a big reason why there’s a belief in Notre Dame’s locker room that he can deliver a needed jolt to the Irish offense.
“His care factor’s through the roof,” Rees said. “He gives a shit — a lot. He’s going to walk into the building and do everything in his power to be ready to play Saturday. That’s just who the kid is. That’s why he’s here.
“He has that energy. He has that respect of his teammates that can kind of inject some life into our group right now, which we need. He has that, which is tremendous.
“I told him on Sunday, ‘You’re the perfect guy to help us through this right now. You’re the perfect mentality, energy, respect.’ All that stuff’s great.
“He had a sharp practice (Tuesday). He's going to continue to be sharp mentally. Then we want to get him to a point Saturday where he can go out there and doesn’t have to press. Just go out there, play free, play with some confidence and go be himself.”
Pyne reached out to Book on Monday night. They check in with each other from time to time. Pyne credits Book for helping him learn Notre Dame’s offense as a freshman.
“He just told me, ‘Go out there, be me, have fun and just go ball.’ He knows who I am and I'm very thankful for Ian,” Pyne said.
Pyne plans to help freshman quarterback Steve Angeli, who is now the No. 2 quarterback, in the same way. He expected Angeli to be waiting for him after Pyne finished speaking with reporters Tuesday night.
“He wants to learn too, so it's not like I'm making him do it,” Pyne said. “I'll tell you one thing, every single thing I do, I'm bringing him with me. Because it's an important position. Everything I do, he'll be with me.”
Pyne did enough in his career at New Canaan (Conn.) High to be ranked higher by Rivals in the 2020 class than Book or Angeli were in their respective classes. Pyne, ranked as the No. 7 pro-style quarterback and No. 118 overall, was in the same range as Buchner, the No. 6 dual-threat quarterback and No. 113 overall in the 2021 class.
But that won’t matter Saturday. Even all his charisma and leadership abilities will mean less if he doesn’t do his job on the field. That’s why every moment of preparation means so much to him. It will be time Saturday to prove himself.
“Coach Rees says it all the time. It's easy to lead when you execute,” Pyne said. “When you go out in practice and you execute and you run the offense smooth, that's a good way to lead.
"You can't really lead when you're not executing. Just going out on the field and practicing as hard as I can every day and being mentally prepared every single day is something that I pride myself in doing and I'm going to do every single day.
“When game time comes and when competitive periods happen in practice I'm going to be loud. I'm going to be fired up.”
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