When No. 8 Notre Dame plays host to No. 7 Cincinnati on Saturday the Fighting Irish will be doing so with a two-quarterback system. Exactly which two quarterbacks however remains to be seen.
Jack Coan has been Notre Dame’s starter for the first four games of the season but was knocked out of the most recent win against Wisconsin. Although it isn’t serious in terms of being a longterm injury, his availability for the showdown with Cincinnati is still unkown.
The quarterback situation is such, and I think I mentioned it after the game, if Jack is healthy, Jack would be our starter,” Brian Kelly said on Monday, “We’ll see when we get on the field tomorrow. We’re not on the field today, so I really can’t give you an assessment of how (Coan) is relative to throwing the football. I think tomorrow we’ll make a decision on how he feels and how he looks.”
As was the case against Toledo and for the first half against Purdue, freshman Tyler Buchner will play the other quarterback role that has helped in opening up the running game.
“But Tyler felt really good yesterday at treatment, so he declared himself feeling really good, so that that’s good for us,” Kelly said, “That allows us to get him back into the mix.”
Right now it would appear that Coan will be the starter for Saturday but if things don’t go as planned in Tuesday’s practice then it’ll be Drew Pyne that the Irish will lean on to get them through another big-time matchup.
“If he (Coan) can’t then Drew is ready to go and it appears that Tyler is going to be in pretty good shape to play for us,” Kelly said, “So, the two quarterback situation, it just depends on what two from that standpoint.”
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