Drew Pyne's Hot Hand Keeps Notre Dame Rolling
Junior quarterback Drew Pyne didn’t have time to visit the blackjack tables while he was in Las Vegas last weekend, and that’s really a shame. Notre Dame’s signal caller has been one of the hottest hands around while leading the Fighting Irish to a three-game winning streak since taking over behind center.
Pyne’s 22 for 28 passing day in Notre Dame’s 28-20 win over BYU in Saturday’s Shamrock Series game in Las Vegas represented a new career-best 78.6 completion percentage. In his three career starts, all Irish wins, Pyne has completed no worse than 70.6% of his passes in a game.
"I think it's just preparation and taking every single practice like a game and just preparing really hard,” Pyne said after the latest Irish win.
Pyne says preparation, his head coach says confidence. It's probably a convergence of both.
"He’s starting to make some plays where he’s improvising a little bit,” Marcus Freeman said, in reference to the pitch Pyne made to running back Audric Estime against BYU that Estime turned into his own posterization meme when he hurdled a BYU player at the end of the run.
Freeman thought Pyne was probably going to have to take a sack on that play, but the quarterback’s resourcefulness won the moment. It turned what looked like a sure fire disastrous moment into a 13-yard gain by Estime and, ultimately, a touchdown pass to Michael Mayer three plays later.
"That comes with confidence,” Freeman said of Pyne’s newly displayed sixth sense. "I think when you start making the right decisions, you take care of the football (and) now you’re seeing him start to make plays.”
Pyne has become a confident player in a short amount of time. The player who couldn’t hit water with his first passes in his first start against Cal three weeks ago has connected on virtually everything he’s put in the air the last three games.
Lucas Peltier, USA TODAY Sports
"Something that all you guys saw during the Cal game, was all my teammates coming up to me when I was down and when I wasn't succeeding,” Pyne explained. Every single player on the team, offense, defense, special teams, so many guys came up to me and had my back. Honestly, the reason I'm so comfortable out there is because I love each and every one of the guys that I'm on the field with. They're all my best friends, and that just makes me really comfortable to go operate.”
Pyne’s 63 for 85 clip for 701 yards over his three-game hot streak is good for a 74% completion rate. He has eight touchdowns with just a ball tipped at the line of scrimmage by BYU that turned into an interception since moving into the starting role.
It helps to have a tight end like Mayer to help pad those numbers. Mayer was targeted 15 times against the Cougars and hauled in 11 of those passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns.
Sophomore wide receiver Jayden Thomas stepped up in Vegas as well, with three receptions for 74 yards, the most yards by a Notre Dame wide receiver this season. One of those catches was a 30-yard touchdown grab that Thomas went up over a BYU defensive back to make the spectacular catch.
"What you’re also seeing is some receivers and a tight end make him look really good,” Freeman said. "He’ll get credit for that, but that catch that Jayden Thomas made for a touchdown was a heck of a catch.”
It was also a heck of a throw that many young quarterbacks are not willing to throw. Pyne threw the ball to a receiver who was covered tightly, but he let that 6-1, 215-pound athlete go up and make a play on the ball.
Pyne has also been helped by an offensive line that continues to grow into a top-notch unit after a slow start to the season. He was sacked twice in his first start against Cal, but he has been brought to the ground just once in the last two games.
The closest he came to being sacked by BYU was Estime’s highlight reel play. He stood in the pocket with ample time to go through his progressions most of the night. Sometimes that resulted in one of those 11 connections with Mayer and others he was able to hit six other Irish pass catchers.
"(The) offensive line was just unbelievable,” Pyne said. "Those guys worked so hard. (Line) Coach (Harry) Hiestand coaches them really hard and it shows up during games. And so I'm so thankful for the O-line, those guys are unbelievable.
Pyne has only played in eight career games, with half of them coming this season. He has spent countless hours in the film room though and it has helped him make sure the correct protections are called on Saturdays.
"Drew’s doing a great job of getting us into the right protections, but that’s an area we’ve got to continue to grow at,” Freeman said, "That’s the number one thing we have as an emphasis this game is make sure we are in the correct protection to protect yourself.”
Freeman was asked at his Monday press conference if Pyne has had a direct impact on the improvements of the line over the last three games, but he said it’s still more about the line’s own cohesion continuing to round into play.
"They’re all continuing to have some cohesiveness and being on one coordinate and it’s showing with the execution,” Freeman said. "That’s over the course of five games. You see a group that’s just getting better and better and better. Five guys just gelling and really communicating and executing at a high level."
As good as Pyne has played, there are some who wonder if he should have been the starter all along, rather than game one and two starter Tyler Buchner, but Freeman hasn’t second-guessed himself on going with Buchner before his season-ending shoulder injury.
"No, I don’t question that decision at all,” responded Freeman. "That was earned. That was earned through practice and we made a decision and sometimes the results can put a mask over your eyes and cloudy the process of getting to that decision. I know we didn’t win that game and three quarters that Tyler played, but Tyler Buchner earned the right to be the starter through preparation.
"Now, Drew Pyne’s done a superb job,” Freeman continued. "He’s done an excellent job at leading this team. He’s earned the right, obviously, now to be our starting quarterback and has done a great job with this opportunity, but no, I don’t question our decision in terms of making Tyler the starter to start the year.”
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