Drew Pyne Is In Better Shape And Ready To Battle

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne has a new look this season. The junior signal caller has a fall training camp mustache and a buzz cut. He also credits Director of Football Performance Matt Balis with making him a bit more svelte around the midsection after a summer of intense workouts.

“I probably got my belly down a little bit less than what I was showing at the spring game,” Pyne said after Saturday’s second fall camp practice. “I think that I really pushed myself in that area.”

That’s not where Pyne estimates he has made the biggest changes, though. The Connecticut native has spent countless hours in the film room to improve his game as he vies for a higher spot on the depth chart.

Pyne wanted to put himself in a situation where he would know what he was seeing when he stepped on the field, so that he wouldn’t have to think. He wanted the extra film study to make him feel like there was nothing he hadn’t already seen.

“If you think about it, you lose a second, and a second in football is a lot of time,” Pyne explained. "I just try to go out there (and) I see the defense and I just react to what happens rather than thinking about what happens.”

There is far less occupying Pyne’s time off the field as he maneuvers through his third college training camp. He’s deleted all the unnecessary apps and social media from his phone (though he says he never had Twitter anyway). Instead, he’s filling his time by hunkering down in the film room with the rest of the Fighting Irish quarterbacks.

“Any free time we have, all of us quarterbacks, we all watch film together,” Pyne stated. “We drag the young guys, too. We all watch film together. We have a period from like 12 to 2 PM where we have a little break. A lot of guys nap (but) we go watch film, we finish around 8 or 8:30 and we go watch more film.”

Pyne has six total games of experience under his belt entering the 2022 season. He played in four games and attempted three passes as a true freshman in 2020. He saw action in just two games last year, but had far more extensive playing experience.

He helped Notre Dame beat Wisconsin in Chicago’s Shamrock Series game and then came off the bench for an ineffective Jack Coan a week later in Notre Dame’s only loss of the season to Cincinnati. That taste of the field and this year’s chance to compete with Tyler Buchner to become Notre Dame’s next starting quarterback gave him a different mindset this year.

“I’ve kind of told myself to just be all business,” Pyne explained. “I can’t let anything effect me outside of football. I can’t let anything in school, I can’t let anything with my friend, I can’t let my girlfriend, video games....anything. I want to be all business. I don’t want to mess around with anything else.

“I think I’m going to give my absolute all to this game and this season and do everything I can to perform at my highest capacity, because there’s no other way.”

Pyne said he was in the football facility from 6 AM until around 9:45 PM on Friday. The only reason he left when he did was to catch the last shuttle off campus that takes players home.

“I’m just trying to give everything that I possibly can to this team, because it deserves it,” Pyne said. “We have a really good football team and there’s no reason for me or Tyler to put ourselves into anything else.”

Pyne downplayed a competition with Buchner for the QB1 job this season, but competitiveness is not something he is shy about talking about. It’s the driving force of who he is as a college football player.

The junior quarterback says Notre Dame’s all-time winningest quarterback, Ian Book, made him better during his freshman season in 2020. He wasn’t competing against Book for the starting job, but he competed against Brendan Clark to be Book’s backup.

He competed and came up short for the starting nod against Coan last year, and now the competition with Buchner is next in line in the endless loop of competitions Pyne has faced.

“No matter what I’m always competing and trying to make myself better, no matter who it is I’m playing against or competing against,” Pyne said. “Last season, I (lost) the job, but guess what, I’m competing in practice, I’m competing in the film room, I’m trying to get myself ready no matter what happens. No matter what it is, I’m never complacent in where I am.”

Competition is at the core of any good team in any team sport. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has continued to trumpet the virtues of camp competition for jobs, because it makes players raise their level of play.

But the bonds of the players are key as well. Healthy rivalry doesn’t have to mean hard feelings. And no matter who quarterbacks the Irish this season, Pyne says it won’t affect relationships.

“There’s nothing that can get between us that can impact the team in a negative way,” Pyne said. “Quarterback is a very important position and if there’s bad blood between those two guys, I can’t imagine where our team would be at, because Tyler and I are really good friends. We’re best friends. We watch film together, we hang out together, we play golf together.

“We’re really good friends, but at the same time when we step on the field we know that we’re two very, very competitive people," continued Pyne. "He and I both know that about each other and when we’re on the field we’re trying to compete and make each other better and we push each other to get better by playing better. We each try to do little things to try to top each other. “

“We’re just competitors, but we’re also good people, so I’m happy that he’s here.” 

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