Drew Pyne Feels At Home Back At Notre Dame

Drew Pyne‍ is happy as the quarterback of the New Canaan High School Rams, but after getting a taste of it last weekend, the 2020 Notre Dame commit is pretty excited about his future as well.

“I can’t wait to be there,” the Connecticut native told Irish Sports Daily following an unofficial visit to South Bend for the Vanderbilt game.

“I love being home and playing high school football and being with my family, but when I’m at Notre Dame, I wish I was there.”

Pyne, who committed to the Irish shortly after an unofficial visit back in April, was fired up to return.

“It was awesome,” he said. “It felt great to be back on campus and see everybody. The gameday atmosphere is great. When you’re there, it’s more than you think. I had a lot of fun, I love it there.”

Pyne was happy to see quarterbacks coach Tom Rees, offensive coordinator Chip Long and head coach Brian Kelly again.

“The coaches are just unbelievable,” he said. “Coach Rees has been great to me. Coach Long has been great to me too. Coach Kelly is just driven to win. It’s just a great group of coaches and I’m glad to be able to say they’ll be my coaches down the road.”

Pyne’s older brother played at IMG Academy with Irish running back Tony Jones Jr., so he enjoyed reconnecting with him, but was really excited to catch up with Brandon Wimbush and Ian Book again.

“Those guys have been so nice to me and great to me every single time I’ve come to visit and had a chance to talk to them,” Pyne explained. “They’ve just taken me in and been so nice to me. I know that quarterback group is so tight along with Coach (Tom) Rees. I’m just blessed to be able to say I’m a part of it in the future. Those guys are awesome. I can’t thank them enough.”

He put some time in with some of the other visiting recruits as well, including 2019 kicker Harrison Leonard.

“Harrison, is from Avon Old Farms in Connecticut,” said Pyne, who also chatted with 2019 defensive end Josh Pakola and the other visitors.

“Those kids are cool kids…They were great kids.”

Pyne would love to get back to South Bend this fall, but thinks it’s unlikely, although he will get to see the Irish in action again.

“I’m definitely going to the Notre Dame-Syracuse game at Yankee Stadium,” he said. “It’s just an hour from me, so I’m excited about that. I’m going with (2020 Irish tight end commit) Kevin Bauman, so that’ll be fun.”

Pyne’s New Cannan squad bounced back from a season-opening loss to St. Joseph with a 42-6 victory over Danbury. The Rams are back in action tonight against Trumbull.

“We had a really good offseason, practiced really well, thought we had everything together,” he said. “Obviously, we got punched in the mouth the first game by a great team. It’s not good to lose, but it’s good to learn from a loss, especially being the first game.”

Pyne and his teammates know they may not be able to afford another slip-up though.

“If you have two losses, you’re shaky for the playoffs. It just makes us work harder every day in practice. We just learn from it and win or loss, we have the same mentality of wanting to get better every single day.”