Notre Dame QB Commit Tyler Buchner Skyrockets in New Rankings

It was a strange day because of the star ranking being applied to Notre Dame quarterback commit in the 2021 class, Tyler Buchner.

It was a weird day in recruiting if you’re a Notre Dame fan.  No, not because any big-time player committed and then de-committed or because Notre Dame offered a sophomore tight end that looks ready for the big time.  It was instead because of the star-ranking being applied to Notre Dame quarterback commit in the 2021 class, Tyler Buchner.

Buchner, a senior to be at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, California began the day as a four-star recruit.  Sometime in the late morning his composite rating on 247Sports jumped to five-stars.  Then a short time later it was back down to four.  One Foot Down did a good job breaking this down.

Listen, I don’t really care what his star total is today or what it is going to be in late December when he ultimately signs his National Letter of Intent.  He appears to be a star in the making and will enter Notre Dame with the most hype a quarterback has had since Gunner Kiel began his Fighting Irish career (and we all know how well that worked out).

Where Buchner did gain a ton of ground and didn’t give it back in a single day was in the overall player rankings on 247Sports.  Buchner had been the 103rd rated player in the 2021 recruiting class nationally by the outlet before being promoted to number 50 overall today.

Buchner now ranks as the third highest dual threat quarterback in the class according to 247Sports and the sixth overall quarterback.  He’s shown that he is clearly a great athlete but most of the questions surrounding him come from his level of competition as he plays in California’s lowest classification for high school football.

Regardless of who he plays and whether he ends up with a fifth star or not, the hype train has already pulled out of the station for Tyler Buchner and will likely only be picking up steam as it makes the year long journey to South Bend.

Notre Dame Football: Top 10 Returning Quarterbacks Ranked by PFF

Notre Dame may be getting their experienced signal-caller back but what they won’t be getting is a top ten returning quarterback.
At least not according to Pro Football Focus.

Notre Dame received great news on December 29 when starting quarterback Ian Book took to social media to announce that he would be returning to South Bend for one final season.

The Irish get their QB-1 back and their starter since he took over for Brandon Wimbush in late September of 2018.

All he’s done since is help guide the Irish to their only ever College Football Playoff appearance and helped lead them to victories in 19 of his 22 career starts.

Notre Dame may be getting their experienced signal-caller back but what they won’t be getting is a top ten returning quarterback.

At least not according to Pro Football Focus.

PFF released their list of “The Top Ten Returning Quarterbacks for 2020” on Wednesday and Book was nowhere to be found.

What you did find however was that the best returning quarterback will be in South Bend on November 7 as Trevor Lawrence was given that honor (no surprise).

Jamie Newman checked in at number three and was supposed to take on Notre Dame as Wake Forest’s quarterback but he announced recently that he’d be transferring and is yet to announce his next destination.

It’s not surprising to see Book unranked as I can’t put him over anyone on the list. I am however more optimistic than some about the steps he may be able to take before the regular season as I thought he played perhaps his best month of football to date this past November.

With that said, I’m not going to argue that he was wronged in any way as the difference in quarterback play in two of Notre Dame’s three most recent losses (Clemson ’18, Georgia ’19) has been as glaring as anything else on the field.

Notre Dame/Stanford: David Shaw Throws A Book of Praise

I’ll be the first to say that Book gets criticized a ton for not being as great as some of the Heisman or national championship contending guys and his performance against Michigan was inexcusable.

However, the young man is still one of the better ones you’ll find in all of college football

Stanford head football coach David Shaw was once widely regarded as among the best in the country and potentially destined for the NFL.

You don’t hear that as much the last two years as Stanford fell from the top-ten to a 9-4 squad last season before regressing to a 4-7 team this year as they enter their final game of 2019.

When meeting the media like he does every Tuesday during the season, Shaw was asked about his next opponent, No. 16 Notre Dame.

As most coaches normally do, he gave a lot of praise to this week’s foe, but saved the most compliments for the Fighting Irish quarterback.

A quarterback that just makes plays, with his legs. I told the team yesterday, I don’t know that there’s many quarterbacks in the country that about half the season he’s led them in passing and rushing. It’s not that there are a whole bunch of designed quarterback runs, it’s just the kid’s got a great feel for football. He pushes up in the pocket and can escape, can buy time with his legs, it’s hard to get your arms around and wrap him up and bring him down. – David Shaw on Ian Book

I’ll be the first to say that Book gets criticized a ton for not being as great as some of the Heisman or national championship contending guys and his performance against Michigan was inexcusable.

However, the young man is still one of the better ones you’ll find in all of college football and with what has gone on at Stanford this year, you can bet Shaw would love to have the stability of Book at his quarterback spot.

Book’s first home-start in 2018 came against then-seventh ranked Stanford last September.

Book shined bright under the lights throwing for 278 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 47 more yards.

Here’s to hoping he does the same to Stanford on what looks like it’ll be a very sloppy track in Palo Alto.