Jack Coan Shines In Notre Dame Victory Over Florida State
Sunday night in Tallahassee was Jack Coan’s moment, and he shined like the gold on his new helmet. In his first game since 2019 at Wisconsin, Notre Dame’s new signal caller racked up 26 completions for 366 yards and four touchdowns to lead Notre Dame to a 41-38 down to the wire overtime victory over Florida State.
After the game, Coan expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to play quarterback at Notre Dame.
“It’s definitely extremely emotional," Coan stated. "It’s a dream come true for me and my family to play for this University, to play in an iconic place in college football like this, and to get a win like that it’s just unbelievable and I’m so thankful for it.”
Known for his accuracy at Wisconsin, Coan picked up right where he left off with the Badgers by completing 74.3% of his 35 pass attempts in his first game for the Irish. Outside of a couple of under-thrown balls in the first half, Coan was on the money all night for the Irish.
After one game, it’s clear Coan has brought Notre Dame to new heights offensively in terms of the passing attack. Ian Book, Notre Dame’s all-time winningest quarterback who was just drafted by the New Orleans Saints, threw for 300 yards just twice and never eclipsed 312 passing yards or three passing touchdowns in last year’s run to the College Football Playoff, for reference.
According to Coan, airing it out has been a plan for offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and company from the beginning.
“I think I learned early on when I got here that was their plan for the offense and I think it’s a great idea, like I said you always need to have some big chunk plays in a game to be successful and make it easier on the offense,” Coan said.
The Irish had several of those big chunk plays against the Seminoles, as three of Coan’s four passing touchdowns went for over 20-yards. The first came on a 41-yard strike to a wide-open Michael Mayer to take an early 7-0 lead. Coan and Mayer were on the same page all night, as Mayer led the team and set new career highs with nine receptions and 120 receiving yards.
Mayer had a big night statistically but did drop some key passes on third down for Notre Dame. Yet, Coan isn’t worried about the star sophomore tight end.
“He’s our guy, he’s one of the best tight ends in the country, if not the best tight end," stated the veteran Coan. "He does his thing and I trust him with everything no matter if he drops one or makes a mistake you know he’s going to respond, he’s an absolute gamer.”
Outside of Mayer, Kevin Austin Jr. also had a big night and posted career highs of four catches for 91 yards, the best of which was a 37-yard over-the-shoulder grab to get Notre Dame the lead back in the third quarter. Austin is someone who Coan is supremely confident in, especially in man coverage.
Describing the decision to throw the touchdown pass to Austin, Coan stated, “He basically had a one-on-one opportunity, and I always trust Kevin to get over the top on that so I just trusted him and he made a great play.”
I feel like he’s a guy that, maybe not that many people necessarily know about but he’s a special player,” Coan continued.
That easy trust on the deep ball is something that has largely been absent from the Irish offenses of recent seasons, and an area that Notre Dame hopes to improve. The offensive aggression was part of the gameplan for Notre Dame.
“Before the game, Coach Rees talked about being in attack mode and taking the shots when they present themselves, and I think that’s a big part to playing quarterback is taking the shots when they’re there and when they’re not there just taking the check down,” Coan said.
The Irish offense didn’t get much going offensively outside of the passing attack, accumulating just 65 yards on the ground, but Coan made it clear that some nights that’s just football.
“Honestly, every game is different," Coan explained. "Some games we’re going to need to pass the ball more, some games you need to run the ball more, that’s just the way the game goes but I know we’re going to do a better job of running the ball next week and hopefully do a better job passing the ball too.”
In his first game playing with an offensive line featuring four new starters, Coan expressed praise for his blockers in spite of being sacked four times.
“I think the O-Line did a fantastic job tonight, I trust those guys with everything," stated the Irish quarterback. "It’s different playing in a game, you’re not in practice anymore wearing a red jersey, you get hit and you have to move around and scramble, take some hits, so it was good to kind of get the feel for that again but the O-line did an unbelievable job and I’m excited to keep playing with them.”
In the end, Coan was proud of, but not surprised by the resilience of his new team.
“Honestly, I learned that we know how to fight and we know how to win close games but I feel like that was something I already knew,” Coan said. “Just going through the workouts in the winter and the summer with Coach [Matt] Balis, he puts us through a ton of crazy stuff basically to prepare for these moments, and even situationally, Coach [Brian] Kelly does a great job preparing us in practice for moments like this and it paid off tonight.”
Yes, it was just one game, but it takes a special talent to be able to go into a hostile environment in Tallahassee and throw for close to 400 yards and 4 scores in your first game with a new team, not to mention the inexperience at receiver and offensive line. Right now, there’s no question Notre Dame added a baller at quarterback in Jack Coan.
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