Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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8 JAN. 1, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Yes, Veteran Experience Provides Needed Insurance By Todd D. Burlage For starters, this assessment is not an indictment of Irish reserve quarterbacks Brendon Clark or Drew Pyne. Instead, it is a suggestion for Irish head coach Brian Kelly to keep options open once the curtain closes on three-year starting quarterback and two-time team captain Ian Book. COVID-19 chaos caused the NCAA to grant every Football Bowl Subdivision player in 2020 an extra or "free" year of eligibility in 2021. This means that a traditional graduate transfer quarterback — who can play immediately — will have two years of eli- gibility remaining instead of the usual one, which is already helping to flood the transfer portal with quality players looking for a fresh start. As examples: • Oklahoma's Tanner Mordecai (6-2, 212) — ESPN's No. 151 overall pros- pect in 2018 is also an Academic All-Big 12 first-team pick. • Louisville's Jawon Pass (6-4, 209) — Hit the Irish with 134 passing yards, 99 rushing yards and two touchdowns in 2019 — and was recruited by Notre Dame out of high school. The 2018 starter before a foot injury early in 2019 knocked him out of the lineup, he is one of 14 four-star quarterbacks already in the portal. • Arizona's Grant Gunnell (6-6, 225) — The Texas high school all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns, and a player Notre Dame took a recruiting peek at. Clark, Pyne and incoming Irish freshman Tyler Buchner will all get their chance next preseason to compete for the starting job. But adding a quality veteran as a been-there-done-that candidate will make the competition only fiercer and this position group stronger. Trust The Process With Your Own Guys By Lou Somogyi I have no objections whatsoever about transfers, graduate or otherwise. Graduate transfers Ben Skowronek at wide receiver and Nick McCloud at boundary cornerback were highly valuable plug-ins at positions of need this season. It's also understandable how in 2021, when quar- terback will be the top position battle and possess the least amount of career playing time, the staff might want to contemplate shopping around for a veteran. Finally, 2021 junior Brendon Clark might need some knee cleanup, sophomore Drew Pyne has taken only mop-up snaps and incoming freshman Tyler Buchner didn't even have a high school senior year. Talk about unsettled! Still, first-year signal-callers have brought out the best in Brian Kelly and his staff: freshman Tommy Rees going 4-0 to finish 2010, Everett Golson supplementing a 12-0 start in 2012, DeShone Kizer coming out of nowhere for a 10-1 beginning in 2015, Brandon Wimbush's 8-1 start in 2017 and, of course, Ian Book during the 2018 playoff run. Clark, offered by Clemson, will have been in the system three years. Pyne and Buchner were both top-120 prospects nationally. The development pro- cess and culture at Notre Dame have created heavy buy-in and trust. If there is a five-star transfer out there like a Justin Fields (who went from Geor- gia to Ohio State), by all means kick those tires. But even someone like 2019 Heis- man winner Joe Burrow at LSU first had to go through some downs in 2018 with the Tigers. To bring in someone at quarterback as just a one-year stopgap mea- sure is something I don't quite view as a plus and could even disrupt chemistry. Point ✦ Counterpoint: SHOULD NOTRE DAME BRING IN A VETERAN TRANSFER AT QUARTERBACK? In a relatively short period of time, Aaron Hor- vath — the Notre Dame assistant athletic director for communications — has already seen seemingly a generation's worth of changes and challenges while helping to coordinate a team of about 15 members missioned to produce the online and social media content for Notre Dame athletics. Horvath, 32, joined the Notre Dame athletics staff in an entry level position about seven years ago after initially being hired here for a summer internship and some part-time help while finish- ing his undergraduate work at Indiana University. Today, three years after accepting his current position, Horvath has become an integral part to keeping Fighting Irish Media thriving and growing through its three-pronged mission of "Education, Empowerment and Engagement," along with its high-powered promotional push for Irish student- athletes, coaches and all members of the Notre Dame athletics department. Horvath grew up locally, near Notre Dame. His father was a decorated South Bend Police Officer and his mother a veteran educator. Blue & Gold Illustrated caught up with Horvath to discuss what a day in the life looks like, and the special challenges working under the COVID-19 cloud. BGI: How would you describe the mission of your position and that of Fighting Irish Media? Horvath: " The mission of Fighting Irish Media is to elevate, educate and empower our student athletes to tell their stories — that is the simplest way to define it. And our goal out of that contact is to have people become Notre Dame fans, or continue their Notre Dame fandom. "So if we continue pushing those three initiatives, we are going to have a great opportunity to keep Notre Dame as one of the best, or the best, collegiate institu- tions in terms of athletics and education." BGI: Sports news is a fast moving business, es- pecially on social media and other online outlets. What is the secret to working through so many moving parts and production dynamics? Horvath: "The challenge is to always try to get better, be willing to try new approaches and ideas, and not to fall into a stale way of doing things. "Thank goodness we have a great staff that grabs that, tries to move forward and tries to break down different ideas that have been built up over the years." BGI: What is a day in your life like? Horvath: "No two days are ever the same and that's what I love about my job, always a new challenge. That said, the goal remains the same — how are you going to be the first and/ or the best? "So, a day in the life is not always the same but the charge never changes. And that's to tell great Notre Dame stories through the eyes of student-athletes." BGI: The pandemic has put a strain and additional challenges on everyone. How has it impacted your responsibilities? Horvath: "Ours has been more tac- tical, in a sense. Our strategy here has always been about culture and family, and it has shown through the pandemic. "Our staff has had to jump into areas and re- sponsibilities we're not accustomed to perform- ing but are more than willing to." BGI: Any specific examples of those challenges? Horvath: "Our staff has been ball boys and ball girls. They've been checking people's tem- peratures when they've been coming into the building. Our strategies aren't changing in terms of educate, elevate and empower, but our day- to-day activities have changed to helping anyone that needs help at anytime. "We had game management people mowing the grass at Warren Golf Course. That's a great example of having people coming together and joining in." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With … NOTRE DAME ASSISTANT AD FOR COMMUNICATIONS AARON HORVATH HORVATH DREW PYNE BRENDON CLARK