By John Brice
Special Contributor
Tommy Rees is ready to dive into post-practice video study when a question gives him pause.
Inside Notre Dame’s elite Irish Athletic Center where the team is trickling across the street to the Guglielmino Athletics Complex following an early practice for this month’s Gator Bowl opposite South Carolina, Rees temporarily is stumped.
“I don’t even remember him being out,” Rees says. “I remember the surgery and he maybe missed a day or two coming back from that, but I don’t remember any time where he wasn’t just there, right? He was a great sounding board for Drew and Steve and provided us some help in the box. He really didn’t miss a beat.”
He is Tyler Buchner, Notre Dame’s sophomore quarterback who’s blazing a recovery trail back to the field following a shoulder injury resulting in surgery Week 2 against Marshall; he’s fronting a quarterback room now featuring Steve Angeli and Ron Powlus III with Drew Pyne exiting for the NCAA Transfer Portal.
Buchner now is back on the field with his Irish teammates, but he’s been a fixture throughout this season – even with only 120 snaps pre-injury.
It’s this approach that has Buchner in position to significantly carry the Irish offensive mantle Dec. 30 in Jacksonville, Florida, against the Gamecocks. From coaching alongside Rees, Trevor Mendelson and other select Notre Dame staffers inside the coaches’ box each game day to never missing film with the group, Buchner’s return is product of his preparation – even amidst recovery requiring physical therapy.
“He was with us the whole time, did everything with the quarterbacks,” says Rees, his teachings being steeped in his own history playing the position at Notre Dame. “Those guys all do it together and when they’re away from me, they would do it as a group. The more you can understand, the more you know, the better you can go play, right? The preparation gives us the confidence and he continued to prepare the right way.
“He had a voice. He was able to see it and kind of help communicate things to us up there, based on he kind of always set his eyes where the quarterback should and was able to help some of our G.A.s with some of our charting stuff. But yeah he had a voice and I was able to look to him and say, ‘What’s it look like out there?’ And he would tell me and I would trust him because I know he knows where to set his eyes and I know he knows what we’re looking for.”
Sure, Buchner is a former nationally ballyhooed recruit with tremendous physical gifts, but there’s rust, right? Not perhaps in the ways an observer might expect.
“He’s a special athlete, right? So I think he probably picked up further ahead than a lot of guys can,” Rees says. “You see the smoothness, see the understanding of making some throws of, ‘OK, maybe there’s going to be some rust’ and he really hasn’t missed a beat.
“There’s some timing stuff and details of motions and timings of the snap and stuff like that, you don’t do it for 12 weeks you’ve got to get back used to the speed of everything. The more reps he gets, the more that will all come on.”
Count the Irish coaches among those not at all surprised by the relative seamlessness in Buchner’s return.
“I don’t think it’s surprising just because he never got mentally disengaged,” Rees says. “He was engaged the whole time and was able to come back and really pick up mentally where he left off. The physical part, he’s doing a nice job with.”
And the expectations, for Buchner or anyone else? Those remain non-negotiable.
“I’m sure his expectations for himself are extremely high; that’s how he holds himself,” Rees says. “Look, we don’t drop our expectations for any quarterback. It doesn’t matter if Steve had to go out there seven weeks ago, our expectations of what we ask him to do are the same. Whatever play we call, we expect our guys to put our team in a good spot make good decisions and go execute it.
“That’s the expectation of the group; we don’t waver from that and they don’t want us to waver from that. How you call it can be a little different based on who’s out there and what you ask them to do, but they know that our belief is whatever is asked of them, they’ve got to go out there and execute it.”