One last look at the historic passer rating of Notre Dame QB Drew Pyne
Drew Pyne’s lone season as the starting quarterback at Notre Dame might not be remembered by numbers. Several were not good enough for Irish fans to want to reserve space in their brains for them. Take 183.7 passing yards per game, for instance. That ranked 86th nationally.
There was a number, however, that is right up there with the best of the best in program history. Pyne’s season-long passer rating of 155.3 slotted him 21st in the country, one spot behind Michigan’s JJ McCarthy — a player who earned much credit for leading the Wolverines to another College Football Player berth — and two spots ahead of Georgia’s Stetson Bennett IV, a 2022 Heisman Trophy finalist who has the Bulldogs in a position to win the national championship for the second consecutive season.
Only three quarterbacks in Notre Dame history have had a better passer rating than that of Pyne’s this year; Jimmy Clausen’s 161.4 in 2009, Bob Williams’ 161.4 in 1949 and Brady Quinn’s 158.4 in 2005. Pyne’s mark is even better than John Huarte’s figure of 155.1 in 1964. Huarte won the Heisman that year.
Best single-season passer ratings in Notre Dame history
| Player (Year) | Passer Rating |
| 1. Jimmy Clausen (2009) | 161.4 |
| Bob Williams (1949) | 161.4 |
| 3. Brady Quinn (2005) | 158.4 |
| 4. Drew Pyne (2022) | 155.3 |
| 5. John Huarte (1964) | 155.1 |
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Too many people have the negatives that came with Pyne’s starting status drilled into their heads. For example, he had 9 batted passes. But that was only half as many as the nation’s leader in that category, Mississippi State’s Will Rogers (18). Heisman Trophy runner-up Max Duggan of TCU had 12 of his passes batted. Nobody seems to be clamoring about those misfires.
Pyne also threw 22 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions. That ratio of 3.67 was much better than that of several notable signal-callers across the FBS, including South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler (16 touchdowns, 11 interceptions for a ratio of 1.45). Notre Dame will see him on Dec. 30 in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.
There are a lot of components that go into a player’s passer rating; passing attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns and interceptions. They all came out in a calculation to conclude Pyne had one of the 20 best seasons as a passer in the country.
