on the field receiving for them but it wouldn’t have mattered had one been on the field for our Irish - the ND QB couldn’t get the ball to him anyway. ND head coach made sure of that by not supporting the one guy in his arsenal who could make those down-field throws or the face paced throw needed to hit open receivers so that QB who could do that left the program. The ND QB of choice was mostly late on his throws when receivers were open when he did see them.
The Bama coaching staff aren’t dumb and they didn’t give ND time to have open receivers knowing the field was much smaller and tighter for ND. On the flip side, ND D had to respect the Bama QB and their receivers which gave Bama that extra moment to complete downfield passes to their super-star. They had the whole field to make plays.
ND’s issue was the ND QB couldn’t stretch the field with his mediocre passing ability and Bama took total advantage of it as did Clemson in the second game.
It wasn’t about the receiving corps, it’s the QB choice.
The rest of ND’s groups were pretty much up to the task of playing as an elite team.
I don’t dislike Book, he is certainly a decent serviceable player, dedicated and played well in the first Clemson appearance and played above his talent vs Bama, and if Book was the only QB at ND, I wouldn’t say a thing, but he wasn’t and this is on the head coach for losing a QB who could have stretched the field with his arm.