Among the eight players that Notre Dame announced were out – most of which unexpectedly – for this afternoon’s contest with South Florida, one was backup quarterback Brendon Clark. That leaves true freshman Drew Pyne seemingly one snap away from getting on the field. It sounds like one of Notre Dame’s contingencies is former quarterback Avery Davis.
Davis, who has played running back and corner in addition to wide receiver, was originally recruited by Notre Dame initially as a quarterback after a record-setting high school career in Texas. In a perfect world, we won’t have to see Davis relive those glory days this afternoon.
With Clark out, true freshman Drew Pyne serves as Ian Book‘s backup for at least this afternoon. Pyne was a consensus top-100 recruit early in his recruiting cycle but fell down the rankings throughout his senior season. Pyne was an early-enrollee for Notre Dame in January, but with just one spring practice before COVID shut spring sports down, he didn’t get the normal benefit of enrolling early practice wise.
Brian Kelly hasn’t been asked about Davis at quarterback this year, but it’s safe to assume that the Notre Dame coaching staff prepared for such contingencies given the nature of playing football amid a pandemic.
It could be a busy afternoon for Davis even if he doesn’t have to play any quarterback. Lawrence Keys was also among those listed as unavailable for Notre Dame today so Davis will be playing a lot of slot wide receiver as well.
I definetly think Notredame has the talent to give anyone in the country including Clemson Alabama and Ohio State. Not sure though that Book is good enough to beat those teams. If Notredame can run the ball really well Book can win. But what happens when these teams stack the box and force Book to beat them through the air? I hope I’m wrong. The 2 concerns I have about Book is it seemed 2 years ago he was more accurate especially the short and midrange passes. Now he is missing those throws. Also I dont know why Reese didnt throw more deep downfield passes. He has to do that to stop teams from sitting on those short intermediate throws.
You need a top tier dual threat qb to win a championship in today’s game. Ian Book is not that guy
I agree Jeff. Trevor Lawrence is really fast so is Justin Fields Joe Burrow wasn’t a true dual threat but he was outstanding at extending the play and was very accurate especially throwing deep down field. Lawrence in that playoff game against Ohio made a 60 yard touchdown run right before half time to swing that game. He was pulling away from Ohio States dbs.