Moving on from Brandon Wimbush seemed like a panic move at first, but Ian Book makes Notre Dame football a serious College Football Playoff contender.
Three games into the season, the feeling around Notre Dame was a mixed bag. Some felt good about the Irish as they had beaten Michigan in the opener, recording a solid Week 1 victory on the resume, but others were down on Notre Dame because of two straight close calls against Ball State and Vanderbilt and an offense that was lacking a spark.
Enter, Ian Book.
The junior quarterback came in against Vanderbilt and went 3-for-3 with a touchdown passes, starting the Book movement for Notre Dame fans.
Brandon Wimbush just wasn’t getting the job done, so Brian Kelly was forced to make a change. In the three games since that move to start book over Wimbush, the Irish have absolutely flourished.
In fact, Notre Dame averaged just 22.3 points per game with an average win margin of 6.7 with Wimbush starting and with Book, in the same sample size, the Irish are putting up 46.3 points per game and winning by an average of 24 points. It’s been a tale of two halves for the 2018 Notre Dame season.
It’s not like Notre Dame’s competition has been weaker with Book under center, but it’s actually been the opposite. He’s faced two ranked teams in Stanford and Virginia Tech and had two road games. In those three contest, he’s accounted for 874 yards and eight touchdowns, completing over 70 percent of his passes.
Notre Dame has a winnable schedule from this point forward and the Irish will likely be favored in each game with a tough road contest against an improving USC team in the finale looming. If they can win out, they’ll be a lock to make the playoff. Even with one loss, you could make the argument for a Book-led Notre Dame team to make the top-four.
There’s a new sense of excitement in South Bend these days and the emergence of Book as an elite quarterback is one of the main reasons for that.