The image that became a mini-firestorm and, eventually, bore brash but amusing “Do your (blanking) job!” T-shirts in gold and green obscured something revelatory as Notre Dame’s coaches sat inside their box Sept. 24 at North Carolina’s Kenan Memorial Stadium.
Yes, Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees barked on the phone to starting quarterback Drew Pyne on the Notre Dame sideline. To know the relationship of those two, to know how closely they’ve bonded through the past five years, is to know the fallout was much ado about nothing.
Yet to study the image of those Notre Dame offensive coaches flanked by a rather surprising addition to the box is to see a phenomenal teaching element from Rees, Notre Dame first-year head man Marcus Freeman and the remainder of the staff.
There amongst Rees, senior offensive analyst Trevor Mendelson and others was injured sophomore Notre Dame signal-caller Tyler Buchner.
The second-year player who commanded the starting job with a scintillating preseason camp performance but who was lost for the season late in the Week 2 loss to Marshall has found a home upstairs with the Irish offensive coaches; Buchner’s been a de facto student-coach in the past three games.
“When everything gets stripped down, I think Tyler’s going to look at this year as an extremely rare opportunity to learn and grow,” said Rees, whose offensive adaptation in consecutive wins against North Carolina and BYU has seen the Irish score 73 points and amass nearly 1,100 yards’ offense with more than 79 minutes of possession. “I think being able to see it from a removed lens and really see the game from that vantage point is going to ultimately help him.”
Injured players have been spotted returning to their teammates on sidelines perhaps as long as TV cameras have broadcast games; an injured quarterback in the coaches’ box is an entirely different matter.
Freeman shed some insight on the thought-process.
"Well, it started off with we didn't want them in harm's way; he was fresh, I think two or three days out of surgery,” Freeman said, “and we wanted to get him away from anywhere that he could possibly be in harm's way.
“I think he's up there charting plays now and being another set of eyes. He's writing down notes. Again, if that's more beneficial for our offense, let's do it. Maybe at some point, he will come down and be a voice for Drew and Steve, but keeping him in the press box is one for safety, but two, it's a way to chart plays and sit down and be a set of eyes for us."
Rees explained that the coaching staff afforded Buchner the opportunity to have some say in his game-day location but that the staff was in agreement where Buchner could benefit the most – and likewise benefit his teammates.
“We asked Ty, ‘Do you want to be down or up with us in the box?’. We thought the box would be a really positive thing for him,” Rees said. “Do you miss having him there (on the sideline) with Drew? Maybe a little bit, but like there are things Tyler sees in the box and he’ll nudge and say ‘Hey, maybe this or that.’
“I just think it’s a great opportunity to grow and learn. Will he be up there all year? That’s probably up to him, but he was up there for Cal, up there for Carolina. I don’t think our G.A.s are going to let him down right now after a roll. He’s been great; he’s been great with Drew and all of us.”
Pyne’s play likewise has soared in the past two weeks with Buchner, Rees & Co. being the Irish offense’s eyes in the skies. Freeman pointed to the Buchner-Pyne relationship off the field.
"They've got a great relationship,” Freeman said. “I think sometimes player to player, I think I used the same example with Michael Mayer earlier, the player to player feedback can be much more beneficial, maybe at times, than coach to player. You can hear maybe the same message but in a different tone and in a different way. They've been really good.
“I sit in a lot of the quarterbacks meetings, those two guys really interact well, bounce ideas off of each other and feedback with Coach Rees. It's a really, really healthy relationship that I really think is elevating the play of Drew Pyne."