Alabama Lands Notre Dame QB Tyler Buchner from Transfer Portal
Alabama has added a quarterback from the transfer portal.
Former Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner announced his commitment to the Crimson Tide Thursday morning, joining up with his former offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.
"Sometimes life brings opportunities that are beyond anything you can imagine and that is what has happened today," Buchner said in a statement on social media. "I have committed to play football for the University of Alabama and head coach Nick Saban. I know this is the best decision for my future, and I can't wait to get to Tuscaloosa and begin the next step of my football journey."
Buchner officially entered the portal Tuesday and visited Alabama earlier this week. The redshirt sophomore has three years of eligibility remaining.
The quarterback won the starting job under Rees last season at Notre Dame before a shoulder injury derailed his season in Week 2. He was able to return for the Gator Bowl victory over South Carolina, going 18 of 33 for 273 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. Total on the season, Buchner had 651 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban was on College Gameday Thursday night prior to the NFL Draft and explained some of the process of bringing Buchner in.
"We wanted to give our quarterbacks in our program every opportunity to win the job in spring practice," he said. "We felt like we needed to add some competition in the room. Tyler was certainly a guy that was going to be the starter last year at Notre Dame, got injured, played in the bowl game, played very well. So we thought he would add a lot of competition, and we think he's got the right kind of character and attitude to be a positive influence on our team."
Prior to Buchner's commitment, Alabama already has four scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson, Eli Holstien and Dylan Lonergan. Quarterback play wasn't a particular strong point for Alabama in the A-Day game last weekend with four combined interceptions, and no quarterback has yet been named the starter for the 2023 season.
After A-Day, Saban was asked about the benefit of having a quarterback that has already been in the program like the redshirt sophomore Milroe or the redshirt freshman Simpson.
"I think that’s a better answer to the question, who can do that the best, and those are evaluations that we have to make as coaches at every position," Saban said in response. "We’ve tried to build this program here with the guys that we recruit and the people in the program, but we have had a few guys that have come in and made real impacts on the team. And we see an opportunity to do that, we’re always looking for a way to make our team better.”
Players have until April 30 to enter the transfer portal.
