Notre Dame Draft Diary | Ian Book Part II
Notre Dame's all-time winningest quarterback, Ian Book, is off to prepare for NFL. Throughout the process leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft, Book will log diary entries to ISD to document his experience over the next five months, as told to Matt Freeman:
I want to thank Jim Nagy and the Reese’s Senior Bowl for an awesome experience in Mobile, Alabama. It was a great week of competition, and I’m grateful for everyone who allowed the Senior Bowl week to happen as we work through the COVID pandemic.
The week was challenging and rewarding. I expected a grind, and it was just that.
The first two days were welcome days with COVID testing and quarantine, but then we were off and running with meetings.
Entering the week, I wanted to showcase my leadership and ability to digest information quickly. The Senior Bowl staff wasted no time as they put every player to the test immediately. As soon as we received our playbook, we attended a finance meeting and met with other sponsors of the Senior Bowl. We didn’t get back to our room until around 11 p.m. with breakfast following the next morning at 6.
I stayed up late and got up early to master the playbook. I expected the coaches to test our ability to absorb the playbook at the first practice, so I executed the plays mentally as if I was on the field to grasp the concepts and terminology.
It was a great challenge as they knew we didn’t have sufficient time to learn the playbook without putting in the extra work. That’s my style anyway. Sam Ehlinger, Feleipe Franks and I were able to meet with our coordinator and quarterbacks coach at night, which was a great experience.
Quick shoutout to Coach Tommy Rees as he and his system prepared me for the week. I was extremely comfortable with the playbook as we did similar things in his NFL-based offense at Notre Dame. The plays and concepts are the same, but the terminology is different within each scheme. For me, it was about learning that verbiage and how the Dolphins staff called it compared to how we had called it at Notre Dame.
Everyone has their own goals entering the week, and I wanted to compete - something I've done my whole life. The game is important, but the week of practice is crucial as coaches, scouts and personnel evaluate your every move. There is always an eye on you, and I was pleased to earn “QB of the Week” at the “Player of the Week” ceremony on Friday night.
I wasn’t aware of the award heading into the Senior Bowl, but it was great to be recognized by my peers for my week of work. I met my goal of proving myself during the week of practice and to show my leadership during the week of practice.
The week was also an opportunity to meet with 31 of the 32 NFL teams in Mobile. The interviews were fun and I was able to display my football knowledge on the whiteboard, and to help them understand me more as a person. I didn’t have any off the field issues, so several teams commented that my meetings were more personal and comfortable.
It was gratifying to put the gold helmet on one more time with my guys from Notre Dame. It was awesome, and I think Notre Dame represented itself in the right way. I sincerely believe every Notre Dame player in the Senior Bowl helped himself during the week.
The next step in my preparation for the NFL will be six weeks in Dallas leading up to Pro Day. I’ll be training at Michael Johnson Performance to continue to grow my game and my 40 time. It’s a fantastic group down here and the level of attention is excellent. I have everything I need to be successful and it’s going to be six weeks of grinding it out.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll be back after Pro Day.
- Ian Book 🤙🏽
Notre Dame Draft Diary | Ian Book Part I