Leftovers & Links: Counting Down the Irish — Others Receiving Votes, shedding some insights into Notre Dame’s QB competition

Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman and Tommy Rees may insist a quarterback competition is unfolding in the Irish preseason. Sophomore Tyler Buchner and junior Drew Pyne (pictured above) can wax poetically about the competition not impacting their close friendship. Everyone involved with Notre Dame can parrot the party line.

The Irish beat writers will not take that proverbial memo seriously.

“What you’ll see is Drew and Tyler battle it out,” Freeman said Friday. “They’ll both get reps with the ones and when myself and [offensive coordinator] Rees and the offensive staff feel it’s to a point where there’s a quarterback that’s clearly showed us that he’s the starter, we’ll name him.”

The beat writers feel it has gotten to a point where Buchner has clearly shown he’s the starter.

In the annual “Counting Down the Irish” series, 10 Irish beat writers — actually, this year, nine Irish beat writers and one media member who allows himself this one arena of overreactive fandom — offered their thoughts of who the top-25 most impactful Notre Dame players will be in 2022. The 10 ballots, in an intentionally subjective exercise, elevate Buchner far above Pyne.

That obviously may tie to Buchner’s mobility. It should give Rees more options in designing the Irish offense, something he cannot fully lean into until he knows who his primary passer will be.

“We know some of the things he can do because he showed it last year,” Rees said Saturday. “We want to continue to uncover some of the things, where we can go with all the quarterbacks. … I’m excited to unravel those pieces as camp continues on.”

After viewing just the first Notre Dame practice this fall, the press box’s presumptions were confirmed enough to knock Pyne well into the “Others