It's hard to say, he certainly had a great HS career and I had high hopes for him. I guess the conventional wisdom is that if it weren't for how Kelly and Tommy Rees treated him, he'd have developed and been the guy after Book left. But he didn't. He showed some of that promise early in the BC career then unfortunate injuries and a lousy team this year have not allowed him to show that talent. It's all potential.
One thing for sure, we have to get a descent transfer portal QB for next season. Carr won’t be in SB until Spring of 2024. As I said, Pyne won’t cut it and I’m not sure Buchner will either. We should have a good run game next year and we have RB talent coming and still in the stable that haven’t been able to play yet(Price)We also know we will have good OL play and if the WR commits stick we will be fine. We just have to find a TP QB to get us over the hump till then. I’m Sure Pyne is a fine young man but it really hurts to watch him play.
Let's recruit some of his O linemen. We know he's got speed, can he run in traffic and keep his balance after taking a shot?
I agree with Tim. QB is our #1 need. If we lose to Clemson this week I hope Freeman starts giving Angeli some meaningful snaps. We need to find out what he's got or not. I'm not sold on Buchner either; more of a runner than a passer.
No doubt something has to change, Freeman has said more than once that he wants the idenitity of the team to be running the football. Teams have figured this out and constantly running of 1st down and 2nd down works great when we either end up with 3rd and short or make the 1st down but when we end up in 3rd and 5 or more ...it's disaster. How about more play action on 1st down when the defense isn't dropping 8? From the Athletic: The book is out on Pyne now: Drop eight into coverage, and he won’t able to work through his progressions with the extra defender in coverage. The past three weeks, Pyne is 3 of 14 for 29 yards and an interception when the opposition drops eight. *** On third/fourth down in the past three games, Pyne is 8 of 28 for 110 yards and an interception. One of those 20 incompletions was his missed tunnel screen to Lorenzo Styles with the entire offensive line out front blocking on Saturday, leading to the latest Tommy Rees tirade directed at his quarterback. **** On a positive note, here is one more stat: ND has converted its last 8 third-and-1 rushing attempts. As far as Angelli is concerned, if he were performing better in practice than Pyne sure put him in, Kelly did that when Book was better in practice than Wimbush and it was clear Wimbush (another really great kid and popular with the team) couldn't run the offense how it was needed and Book gave us a better chance on offense. But if he's not better than Pyne at this point all it would do is maybe destroy his confidence. I guess if you ditch Pyne for Angelli just to see what you have then you logically should ditch pretty much every player who isn't going to be back next season and put in his backup to start getting ready for 2023, right?
Terry, I get your point. It's just so frustrating to watch Pyne. The coaching staff put so much into having Buchner as the starting QB and looking at his potential thought he would be a really good QB. I also thought TB would be good and would lead ND to a great season. Then to have him go down in the Cal game and have to turn to Pyne and see that he just is not going to be a good college QB......frustrating and depressing for me. Even before TB was injured he validated my worst thought that he also is not going to cut it for ND. The Cal game showed that. I guess it is what it is and we're stuck with what we have in Pyne this season. Can't expect Angeli to save the season realistically. Pyne will probably transfer after the season cause you know he won't be the starter next year. Buchner will return as will Angeli. I wouldn't count on either of those be the starting QB either next season. Somehow we'll find a descent Transfer Portal QB and he'll start. Something else, Freeman is really just figuring out how to be a HC vs being a Coordinator. He's taking some lumps along the way. I like him a lot and really hope he figures it out. He's a great person and I believe he will be a great coach at ND. As long as he can keep recruiting well and keep a good staff under him it will come. I hate losing to teams like Marshal and Stanford because we should win just on talent alone. Frustrating. I don't know about Rees. I guess it's easy to be critical of him because he IS the OC but he was the OC the past two seasons also. The passing game seem to be at least O.K, then with Coan and Book. Both of those QBs had their limitations but he was able to get positive results with both. He may not be the OC next year but I'm not sure that's justified. I'm just a fan and not a "football" expert so I don't no if he is to blame or not? I know I have seen to many wide open easy passes go over heads or bounce off the ground. I've seen receivers wide open and Pyne doesn't. I don't think Rees trusts Pyne anymore and if the run game is working well enough he's not going to be calling many pass plays. I'll change my prediction for the season from 6-6 to 7-5 after the win or Cuse. It will take a good game out of Pyne to win either the Clemson or usc game and my faith that that will happen is low for sure. Well I'm off on the search of a Transfer Portal QB we can get for next season.
Paraphrasing Lou Holtz: The most popular player on the field is the 2nd string QB. Thanks, Terry, for The Athletic comments and for your astute assessment. This is a teaching opportunity for the coaching staff. We know they've seen what The Athletic writer has observed, and they're working to correct his shortcomings. We'll learn as the season moves along whether or not they're effective in helping him to improve. I always have believed in playing the hand you're dealt. It's obvious our QB room has a limited upside. In my opinion, two things can help to offset the QB shortcomings, a strong ground game and a ferocious defense. Both were evident Saturday vs. the 15th ranked team in the country on its home field. Clemson will be a huge test, primarily because they have better athletes than Syracuse. I look for (hope for) an improved passing game and the same hard-nosed defense and rushing attack we showed vs. Syracuse. Whatever happens, in the words of our Fellow Skyboxer, Scott, I'm playing the long game. My only hope is a winning season. I remember that in Lou Holtz' first season, we finished 5-6.
To Sid's point, if we can bang out 200-250 yards running per game for three more games and play error free on offense it is possible we can win them. That minimizes the time the opponents have the balls as well as the amount of production you need out of Pyne. At this point that is probably the game plan that makes the most sense.
The one wild card is ND's special teams who've been big contributors to their wins. A lot of our points come after big plays by them. I'm not one of those fans that always believes that the backup QB is always better but I read a post from someone who claimed to have seen both QBs in HS and felt that Angeli was more talented. He apparently led his team to a state championship which says a lot to me about his poise in big games. I'd like to see him get some spot action rather than have to wait for a blowout or an injury to see him throw. I like the idea of getting an experienced QB through the portal for next year since a top QB with one or two yrs. left of eligibility would probably not cause Carr to look around at other opportunities. We were 11-1 last season and I never hear a peep about Rees' playcalling. While he might have had some responsibility for QB recruiting I can't help thinking that other factors such as NIL and Kelly made his job more difficult. One thing that has to improve right now is our open field tackling. We wiff on too many chances to limit yardage especially on 3rd down. Flanker screens only work if the D can't one on one tackle and it has been working a lot against us.
When you get this figured out, can you send the solution to College Station? We seem to have developed that issue as well!
Sadly it would seem like there is little chance that fundamentals like tackling can be addressed at this point in the season if they weren't in the Spring and Fall Camps.