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Notre Dame Football

Ian Book | The New Gold Standard at Notre Dame

November 19, 2020
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Brady Quinn has long been considered the Gold Standard for Notre Dame quarterbacks in the modern era. 

Quinn won games, put up big stats and was Notre Dame through and through. 

It might be time for a new quarterback to carry that Gold Standard tag as Ian Book has earned it over the last 2.5 seasons. 

From a raw numbers perspective, it's closer than you might think as Book has closed the gap on Quinn despite essentially breaking in an entirely new receiving corps this season. 

It’s clear Book has been taken for granted, but he’s truly in rare company as Notre Dame focuses on the final three games of the 2020 regular season. 

Book has started 31 games at Notre Dame and boasts an incredible 28-3 record as QB1 for Brian Kelly. The California native got his first start in 2017 at North Carolina for Brandon Wimbush (injury) and won, 33-10. 

The Citrus Bowl in 2018 was a signature win for Book as he replaced Wimbush during the game and the Irish won, 21-17, as Book threw for two touchdowns in relief, but it wasn’t technically a start.

As a starter through 31 games, consider these stats from Book:
2017: 146 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions
2018: 2,628 yards, 19 touchdowns and 7 interceptions
2019: 3,034 yards, 34 touchdowns and 6 interceptions
2020: 1,817 yards, 11 touchdowns and 1 interception 
Total: 7,625 yards, 65 touchdowns and 16 interceptions 

If you break Book’s stats down per game he has started, it looks like this:
Passing Yards: 245.9
Touchdowns: 2.09
Interceptions: 0.51

Oh, Book is quite the runner. So let’s take a quick look at his rushing history in his 31 starts at Notre Dame:
2017: 45 yards 
2018: 280 yards, 4 touchdowns
2019: 546 yards, 4 touchdowns 
2020: 346 yards, 6 touchdowns
Total: 1,217 yards, 14 touchdowns

In all, Book is averaging 284 total yards per game in his 31 starts. 

Quinn had one heck of a career for the Irish and his name is in the Notre Dame record book everywhere you look. 

Notre Dame had Quinn as the starting quarterback for 46 games during his career, so Book isn’t going to catch that as he won’t be in South Bend in 2021. 

As a starter through 46 games, here’s the ledger left behind from Quinn: 
2003: 1,692 yards, 8 touchdowns and 14 interceptions 
2004: 2,586 yards, 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions
2005: 3,919 yards, 32 touchdowns and 7 interceptions
2006: 3,426 yards, 37 touchdowns and 7 interceptions 
Total: 11,623 yards, 94 touchdowns and 38 interceptions

And then Quinn’s per game numbers as a starter would look like this over his time in the blue and gold. 
Passing Yards: 252.2
Touchdowns: 2.04
Interceptions: 0.82

We won’t dive into Quinn’s rushing yards, but he averaged 3.7 yards rushing per game over his 47 starts, for what it’s worth. 

As a starting quarterback, Ian Book leads the race with more total yards per game, on pace with touchdowns and a slight edge when it comes to throwing fewer interceptions. 

When it comes to accuracy and QB rating, Book and Quinn are also in similar categories. Over the course of their careers (all games), Book has completed 63.1 percent of his passes with a QB rating of 148.3. Quinn finished his career at 58 percent and a QB rating of 134.4. 

Quinn does hold the advantage when it comes to the sexy stats as he holds has more 300-yard passing games, touchdown passes in a season and touchdown passes in a career. 

But you’ll also see Book right next to Quinn in the record books in some categories you might not expect. Quinn holds the record for six touchdown passes in a game (BYU, 2005) and two other games where he tossed five touchdowns in a game. Book has come close as he’s thrown five touchdowns in a game three times.

Book will get the chance to tie Quinn, Ron Powlus and Tom Clements for perhaps the most important category at Notre Dame as he’ll be looking for his 29th career win at North Carolina next Friday. 

We can discuss the three losses by Book, but the 28-3 record as a starting quarterback is something that puts him in an elite category at Notre Dame.

Winning Percentage as Starting QB
.932 - John Lujack (20-1-1)
.903 - Ian Book (28-3)
.903 - Tony Rice (28-3)
.871 - Ralph Guglielmi (26-3)
.853 - Tom Clements (29-5)
.840 - Joe Theismann (20-3-2) 

There is that bonus category. Book is 2-0 against USC while Quinn was 0-4, and yes, it was against a much different Trojan program in the early 2000s. 

It’s worth noting both quarterbacks have incredible intangibles when it comes to leadership, being an ambassador for Notre Dame, confidence and compete level. Quinn left Notre Dame in a better place in 2006 and Book will do the same in a few months.

Book will now have his chance to cement his legacy even further over the next month (or two) as he will have the chance to lead the Fighting Irish to an ACC Championship and possibly a second College Football Playoff appearance. 

 
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