What’s the Notre Dame football quarterback hierarchy after spring practices?

The idea that true freshman Steve Angeli should serve as Notre Dame’s backup quarterback based solely on his Blue-Gold Game performance compared to that of junior Drew Pyne made its way to the BlueandGold.com message board this week.

And to that, the answer should probably be this: pump the brakes.

These two things are true: Angeli looked masterful in the second half of that spring scrimmage, and Pyne looked mostly dreadful in the first. But this is also true: Pyne has been at Notre Dame for going on three years now. Angeli has been around for just over three months.

There are few events on annual college football schedules that turn every type of fan — from casual supporters to diehards — into prisoners of the moment quite like spring games.

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Sure, Pyne threw two back-foot interceptions that weren’t close to his intended targets. He overthrew sophomore wide receiver Lorenzo Styles on a screen attempt when Styles was no more than eight yards directly in front of him. Those were his three worst throws of the day. There were others filed away firmly in the category of, well, bad.

But he had some good tosses, too, most notably three connections with junior tight end Michael Mayer. Those completions were reminiscent of ones he made in the second half of games against Wisconsin and Cincinnati last season — two teams that boasted a couple of the best defenses in the country. One “up and down”, as head coach Marcus Freeman put it, spring game does not weigh more heavily in the evaluation of Pyne than impactful reps in games that actually counted.

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This entire exercise assumes sophomore Tyler Buchner will be the starter, too, which is something that’s realistically far from becoming official. That might not come to fruition until late August, days or weeks before Notre Dame opens the season at Ohio State on Sept. 3.

Without even playing in the Blue-Gold Game because of an ankle injury, though, Buchner might have helped his starting stock. The gap between him and Pyne for the top job is most likely wider, and the gap between Pyne and Angeli is most likely narrower. Again, though, those margins aren’t going to change in the eyes of coaches as much as people probably think.

Buchner, Pyne and Angeli all suited up for the same 13 practices over the course of the month leading up to the Blue-Gold Game. By Freeman and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees‘ accounts, Buchner and Pyne had great duels in those sessions. The coaches said both quarterbacks took care of the ball well. It’s not fair to suggest Pyne has a turnover problem after two picks in a spring game if that wasn’t necessarily an issue in over a dozen practices before then.

Are game-like situations different? Sure. Pyne didn’t have more than 30,000 people watching him in the Irish Athletic Center in those other practices. He didn’t have the pressure of being the guy either. Once Buchner went down with the rolled ankle, all eyes were on Pyne. He didn’t show out with the world watching.

But, remember, that’s exactly what he did against the Badgers and Bearcats. So it’d probably be wise to hold off on completely nixing him from the Notre Dame quarterback radar. There is a long way to go in settling the QB battle.

As for Angeli, just like one mediocre day doesn’t tell the whole story on Pyne, one heroic day doesn’t vault him into eternal good graces at Notre Dame. He still has much to prove. He didn’t arrive at Notre Dame thinking, “The ultimate determinant of success will be shining in the spring game.” It’s only just getting started for him. That said, so far, so good.