Ian Book is the first to admit that he is not a rah-rah, in-your-face kind of leader, and Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees is just fine with that.
See, Rees explained, leadership comes organically, it cannot be forced and be sincere at the same time.
And as a returning fifth-year Irish senior, Book has already built up plenty of leadership equity as he enters his third season as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback.
“Sometimes fifth-year guys can kind of get lost because their class is gone,” explained Rees, who spent three seasons as Book’s position coach from 2017-19 before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2020. “But I really think that the locker room respect towards [Book] allows him to lead in ways that very few guys have been able to through Notre Dame.”
In a video interview Wednesday with Rees, the former three-year starting Notre Dame quarterback shared his feelings and assessment about the current Irish starter.
“In terms of starting quarterbacks and guys that are really the face of the program,” Rees said, “I think [Book] is probably as selfless as a leader, and as selfless as a captain as we’ve had at Notre Dame.”
Sharing similar demeanors, playing styles and experiences, the relationship between Rees and Book has blossomed because these two Irish signal-callers are only about six years apart in age and have lived and played through common circumstances, both elevated unexpectedly from backup to starter at mid-season — Rees in 2010, Book in 2018.
“One thing that is in Ian’s corner is that he gets along with everybody on the team,” said Rees, who also used inclusion and approachability as his leadership tools about 10 years ago. “There’s not an ego there.”
Rees said Book has an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a deep desire to improve, which become contagious in the quarterback meeting room.
Before coronavirus precautions brought isolation orders and halted on-site workouts, Book spent time this offseason consulting with renowned quarterbacks coach Will Hewlett, and Book also worked out at Playmakers Elite Sports Academy in Sacramento and with former NFL quarterback Sage Rosenfels during spring break.
“Is Ian the perfect player and the perfect quarterback? No,” Rees said. “But he does almost everything the right way when it comes to his habits in the weight room, his habits academically, his habits nutritionally, how he takes care of his body, how he works on and off the field with football.”
Rees explained that the points of improvement emphasis for Book before the 2020 season are vastly different from this time last year.
As a high-percentage, low-risk quarterback in 2018, Book often made the position look easy because most of his throws were easy. Book dinked and dunked his way to a Notre Dame single-season record 68.2 completion percentage.
But, “I don’t think, we really scared anybody,” assessed then-Irish offensive coordinator Chip Long of no tangible deep threat.
Book’s completion percentage and efficiency rating slipped some from 2018 to 2019, but that is a trade-off the quarterback and offensive coaches were happy to accept to see Book take more chances throwing deep.
“The deep ball was the thing last year,” Rees said of Book’s primary improvement mission for 2019. “And I think the deep ball was actually something that he improved on.”
During last season, the knock on Book became his propensity to bail out on plays too quickly, a criticism that Rees admitted held some merit.
“Ian’s next step is really just being able to operate and get to the second and third reads in his progression smoothly,” Rees said. “It’s really about diagnosing things outside of your first read and outside of the obvious.”
That said, Rees explained, there is a fine line to walk when trying to teach patience and pocket poise to a creative player such as Book.
“When things aren’t perfect or break down, he is able to find a way to squirt through there and either pick it up with his legs or extend the play with a throw off script a little bit,” Rees said. “You never want to lose that because that’s part of what makes him special, but at the same time, we gotta continue to harp on timing and rhythm.”
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