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.