As soon as Ian Book announced he would return for a fifth year, his third season as a starter, in 2020, the most dramatic possibility of Notre Dame’s spring entirely dissipated. It did so to such a degree, it led to Phil Jurkovec’s transfer to Boston College.
The Irish have their starting quarterback, the driving force of the offense in coordinator Tommy Rees’ first season calling plays, and as much as the springtime instinct may be to dissect each of Book’s deep balls to speedy receivers, time will be better spent watching his understudy, albeit not too closely.