Leftovers & Links: Notre Dame QB Tyler Buchner still more an unknown than anything; plus Playoff thoughts and 100,000 fans

Some preseason predictions cannot be made in the preseason. There are too many unknowns. One such planned Notre Dame prognostication was intended to look at sophomore quarterback Tyler Buchner’s completion percentage.

The first-time starter has notable running ability. That was shown plenty in his situational package last season. But he has not been relied on in a passing game since … 2019 as a high school junior. His ability to read a college defense, let alone make an accurate throw, on Saturdays is wholly unknown.

Losing to No. 2 Ohio State, 21-10, did nothing to change that. Buchner started 8-of-8 — and while one of those was a remarkable acrobatic catch from former walk-on Matt Salerno, Buchner still deserves credit for putting the ball where only Salerno could make a play on it — but he then finished 2-of-10. A 55.6 percent completion rate is not an utter disaster, but it is also not good enough to lead an efficient offense.

Obvious one-game sample size disclaimers notwithstanding, also ignoring the quality of defense faced compared to most of the remaining Irish opponents, a 55.6 season-long percentage would have ranked No. 98 among 100 qualifying quarterbacks last year. In fact, that was the exact completion rate of perhaps 2021’s most-maligned quarterback, Clemson’s DJ Uiagalelei.

But none of Buchner’s incompletions on Saturday stood out as decidedly off-target. He had no turnover-worthy passes. There is plenty of reason to expect improvement.

“We got ourselves a quarterback,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said Monday. “There’s a strong belief in what he can do for this football program.”

This is not intended to become a commentary on that belief. It is instead meant to say, who knows? This space did not