This was beginning to feel ... familiar. Up against a Pitt team that had upset a top-five team in each of the last two years, No. 5 Notre Dame found itself in an increasingly awkward situation.
With the season in the balance, Notre Dame’s Ian Book was almost perfect
The Irish QB didn’t throw an incompletion over the final 26 minutes against Pitt, and the Irish avoided an upset.
Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images
Maurice Ffrench had taken the opening kickoff of the second half 99 yards for a touchdown to give the Panthers a 14-6 lead. Then, with Notre Dame driving, Jazzee Stocker picked off an Ian Book pass. At this point, Book was 16-for-22, but for just 130 yards and two interceptions.
The Panthers drove into field goal position, giving themselves a chance to go up two possessions with 20 minutes left. Alex Kessman missed a 47-yard field goal wide left, however.
Given a second chance, Book responded with perfection.
Here’s a list of the passes Book threw following the Stocker pick (not including a two-point conversion attempt):
- Complete to Chase Claypool for 21 yards
- Complete to Dexter Williams for minus-3 yards
- Complete to Chris Finke for 26 yards
- Complete to Finke for two yards
- Complete to Finke for 15 yards
- Complete to Claypool for a 16-yard touchdown
- Complete to Claypool for nine yards
- Complete to Alize Mack for one yard
- Incomplete bomb to Claypool — defensive pass interference called
- Complete to Miles Boykin for 12 yards
- Complete to Boykin for a 35-yard touchdown
With the game in the balance, Book went 10-for-10 for 134 yards and two touchdowns. His only incompletion didn’t count.
The two scores gave the Irish a 19-14 lead, and after some late-game wackiness — Pitt lined up a reserve quarterback for a fake punt Notre Dame was extremely prepared for, Notre Dame tried to put the game away on fourth-and-1 and failed, etc. — Notre Dame survived. Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi was 2-1 against top-five teams, but now he’s 2-2.
It’s incredible to step back and think about Book’s journey this season. Notre Dame went 3-0 with Brandon Wimbush starting at QB, but the Irish couldn’t top 24 points or 5.8 yards per play, even against Ball State. So head coach Brian Kelly made a move that almost never works: he switched to the backup QB.
Book’s first three starts of 2018 were electrifying. Against three power-conference opponents — Wake Forest, Stanford (ranked at the time), and Virginia Tech (ditto) — Notre Dame averaged 46.3 points per game and 6.7 yards per play. Book completed 73 percent of his passes with eight touchdowns and one interception.
On Saturday, though, he got challenged. Pitt, with all its seemingly endless supply of upset karma, frustrated and confused him. And then he went out and made plays to win the game anyway.
With Book in the lineup, Notre Dame has played like a title contender. And the Irish just beat the team that always beats title contenders.
After a bye week, the Irish get Navy in San Diego, Northwestern in Evanston, Florida State at home, and Syracuse in Yankee Stadium before the season-ending trip to USC. They’ll likely be favored by at least 13 points in each game.
We don’t know how well defenses will adapt to Book’s tendencies or how well Book will adapt to the adaptation. But he just passed his first truly stressful test with flying colors.
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