Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME 10 JUNE/JULY 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED Tyler Buchner Had More Upside By Tyler Horka There is a reason it only took two and a half months for Tommy Rees to lure Tyler Buchner down to Tuscaloosa. The best could have been yet to come for Rees as the Notre Dame offensive coordinator with Buchner as his driving force. Now, he'll get to reap the full benefits of the symbiotic relationship with the greatest head coach of all time closely over- seeing the operation. The reality is Rees lost a lot of his young-OC luster with each passing year in South Bend. His offense aver- aged fewer and fewer yards per game every time the calendar turned until Notre Dame averaged a measly 396.2 yards per game in 2022, which ranked 60th nationally. Odds are those numbers would not have been so low if Buchner was playing each week instead of Drew Pyne. There is evidence that Buchner is nothing more than a turnover machine; he threw 8 interceptions and just 6 touchdown passes in two years at Notre Dame. But he only started three games. One of those was on the road against a top-five team in Ohio State, and the other was against South Carolina of the SEC in the Gator Bowl after he hadn't taken a snap in a live game in nearly four months. Rees' offense was getting stale at Notre Dame. The change of scenery could be good for him. It will also be good for Buchner, who has potential to be a late-blooming star as a college quarterback. He'll be missed in South Bend in 2024 and 2025 if that's the case. Tommy Rees Was A Proven, Successful Leader By Todd D. Burlage "Bigger loss?" It's a difficult question to unpack considering that Tyler Buchner is a third- year player and Tommy Rees is an eighth-year assistant coach. But given the many responsibilities Rees held at Notre Dame — along with his track record while serving three years as its offensive coordinator and six years as its quarterbacks coach — the edge has to go to Rees. Rees coached the Irish quarterbacks in 77 games to- tal, and he was a winner in 63 of those. Buchner played in 13 career games, made three starts and threw 6 career touchdown passes at Notre Dame. When Rees left for Alabama in mid-February, Irish head coach Marcus Freeman found himself in an unexpected coaching search late in the football calendar year, with spring ball coming fast. The episode was an ill-timed mess. When Buchner left for Alabama April 27, graduate transfer Sam Hartman was already in line to become the 2023 starter. Therefore, a player's depar- ture wasn't nearly as traumatic as a coach's, at least this time. If Hartman gets injured early this season in the same way Buchner did in 2022, this debate becomes much livelier. But if Rees continues to pull key Irish players, and potentially top Notre Dame recruiting targets, to Tusca- loosa — in the same way he did Buchner — then losing one proven coach will prove to be a much "bigger loss" now and for years to come compared to losing one backup quarterback this spring. Point ✦ Counterpoint: WHO'S A BIGGER LOSS FOR NOTRE DAME, QB TYLER BUCHNER OR OC TOMMY REES? Despite arriving on campus about 16 months ago as a freshman in January 2022, Jaylen Sneed still had to feel a bit like this year's Blue-Gold Game April 22 was his coming-out party. Provided extended snaps with many of the veteran Irish linebackers held out of the game, Sneed led the victorious Gold squad with 7 tack- les (3 solo). It's the next step in the progression for Sneed from when he was told by Irish head coach Mar- cus Freeman after fall camp last year that he would redshirt. Disappointed, Sneed preserved his year of eligibility in 2022 but was still able to appear as a reserve in four games while recording 7 total stops and 0.5 tackles for loss. Sneed — the No. 1 recruit from his home state of South Carolina, and the No. 3 linebacker in the country and the No. 34 overall player per the On3 Industry Ranking — was the lone five-star recruit in Notre Dame's 2022 class. Blue and Gold Illustrated and other local media talked with Sneed after the Blue-Gold Game and asked him about his journey at Notre Dame so far, and what lies ahead. BGI: How has the process gone from an early enrollee and a redshirt player as a freshman to what's expected to be a bigger role as a sopho- more? Sneed: "The older guys in the linebacker room have really just helped me grow and develop. Last year wasn't a year where I played a lot, but I learned so much from just watching them play and it was just a great year to get experience from them." BGI: What was it like last year to come in as the top-rated recruit, and seemingly ready to play, only to get redshirted? Sneed: "Me and [head coach Marcus] Freeman had a conversation after fall camp and he told me that I was going to redshirt my freshman year. That was kind of hard to take, but he knows best. "I just wanted to keep grinding and eventually I did get to play at the end of the season. That made it better because I just wanted to grind so much harder because I wasn't playing." BGI: What can the spring game performance do for your confidence moving forward? Sneed: "It definitely helps a lot, just knowing that me and my linebacker crew had a great day. We got to tackle a lot of people, play a lot of foot- ball, just great for experience." BGI: The Irish underclassmen were chosen to spring game rosters through a draft by the coaches, and you weren't the first linebacker selected? Sneed: "I loved that they picked [sophomore] Nolan Ziegler before me. It gave me a little chip on my shoulder. It just made me want to work harder." BGI: You played at rover in the spring game, which requires a heavy dose of pass coverage; how did you hold up? Sneed: "I feel like over the past three semes- ters that I've gotten a lot better at coverage. I've learned how to stay disciplined and keep my eyes on the right spot. But I think there is still some growth there. There's always growth." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With … NOTRE DAME SOPHOMORE LINEBACKER JAYLEN SNEED BUCHNER REES Sneed led the victorious Gold squad with 7 tackles in the Blue-Gold Game. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER