What they’re saying about former Notre Dame QB Tyler Buchner at SEC Media Days
Then-Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner’s 273-yard, three-touchdown, three-interception rollercoaster of a performance in the Gator Bowl against South Carolina left a lasting impression on Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer.
With Buchner now competing for the starting QB job at Alabama, Beamer brought Buchner up Thursday at SEC Media Days in Nashville. According to AL.com Alabama beat writer Matt Stahl, Beamer said he told Buchner after the game that he had a “heck of a performance” against his team in Jacksonville.
“Just a guy that you can tell his teammates had a great respect for him,” Beamer said, according to Stahl. “Rallied around him and certainly a guy they had a lot of confidence in at Notre Dame.”
Stahl wrote that South Carolina defensive lineman Tonka Hemingway was impressed with Buchner as well.
“Looked like a tough kid,” Hemingway said. “He was real, real tough, you know? I like the way he played.”
South Carolina will not face Alabama in 2023, but it will visit Tuscaloosa on a to-be-determined date in 2024.
On Wednesday, Alabama coach Nick Saban said he and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees are far from making a decision on the quarterback competition between Buchner, Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson.
“All of those players are getting better, and it’s important for us that all those players get better,” Saban said. “I don’t think anybody has actually separated themselves yet, and I don’t think it’s something that we are trying to rush.”
Related: What Nick Saban said about former Notre Dame OC Tommy Rees
He compared the inclination to pick a quarterback quickly to his grandmother baking a cake.
“Grandma Saban used to bake the best cakes in the world,” Saban said, according to the Tuscaloosa News’ Nick Kelly. “I used to stand by the oven when I was a kid and say ‘When’s this cake going to be done? When’s this cake going to be done?’ She said, ‘If I don’t let it go through and take it out of the oven too soon, it’s going to turn to mush. So it won’t be a really good cake.'”
SEC Network’s Jordan Rodgers, according to AL.com’s Mark Heim, said on WJOX-94.5 in Birmingham, Ala. that he believes either Simpson or Buchner will take the first snap Sept. 2 against Middle Tennessee State.
“I think you don’t bring in Buchner unless you believe this is the style of offense we need to run because of the talent we have around the quarterback, and I think they have a ton of talent,” Rodgers said Monday.
Finally, ESPN national college football insider Heather Dinich went on First Take from Nashville on Wednesday to discuss the Alabama quarterback competition. If she had to guess, Dinich said, she would guess Buchner will be the opening-week starter.
“There’s a reason why Nick Saban went into the transfer portal and got him,” Dinich said. “He’s reunited with 30-year-old offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. … Saban has been praising Tommy Rees right next door here, talking about how he has really excited the players and relates to them, and vice-versa.”
Buchner, who will be a junior this season for Alabama, started the first two games for Notre Dame in 2022, losing both. Toward the end of the Irish’s’s stunning home loss to Marshall on Sept. 10, Buchner suffered a regular season-ending shoulder injury. He returned for the aforementioned Gator Bowl win over South Carolina.
Buchner finished the season with 651 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions.
