Marcus Freeman says Tyler Buchner injury status for bowl game to be determined
Notre Dame will wrap up its regular season this week on the road at No. 7 USC, and the Fighting Irish have done a tremendous job turning things around after starting the season 0-2 and losing starting quarterback Tyler Buchner to injury.
Could Buchner return for a bowl game?
“That’s still to be determined. Right now our docs are not 100% sure,” coach Marcus Freeman said. “That will be based on how he progresses over these next couple weeks. He’s practicing more. Obviously there’s no contact with him. So we’ll see.”
Buchner started the first two games of the season for Notre Dame, with the Fighting Irish dropping contests to Ohio State and Marshall to get kick off the Freeman era in less-than-ideal fashion.
Worse, Buchner was lost for the regular season after suffering a high-grade shoulder sprain that required surgery.
He had gone 28-of-50 passing for 378 yards without a touchdown prior to his injury, while he was picked off twice and sacked four times. He did run 24 times for 62 yard and two scores.
Notre Dame has managed to win eight of nine games since his setback, though, so it’s reasonable to wonder whether Buchner would actually return as the starter at this point if he’s able to play in a bowl game.
“If it’s what’s best for him and he can be full go and be able to be healthy and protect himself and prepare for a bowl game, then shoot, no hesitation to give him that opportunity,” Freeman said. “But that’s still to be determined.”
Could Tyler Buchner injury allow bowl game return?
It’s clear the next couple weeks will be key in determining whether the Fighting Irish deem the Tyler Buchner injury sufficiently healed enough to allow for a return.
But it’s not like Notre Dame will be hurting if the sophomore can’t return.
Fellow sophomore Drew Pyne has been very good as his replacement. Pyne has gone 141-of-228 passing for 1,703 yards and 19 touchdowns, while throwing five interceptions. He’s also run 42 times for 119 yards and two touchdowns.
As noted above, Notre Dame has won eight of its last nine with Pyne starting, dropping only a somewhat bizarre outlier game at home to Stanford in a 16-14 defeat.
The Fighting Irish have climbed all the way to No. 13 in the AP Top 25.