El Dorado Hills’ Ian Book embraces intense role: quarterback at Notre Dame
Ian Book’s introduction to tackle football was emphatically harsh. Like an anvil getting dropped on his head to crash the fun.
On his first snap, he was leveled as an 8-year old quarterback for a youth program in El Dorado Hills. Book never saw the charging linebacker on his back side; it required several hands to pry the grass and dirt wedged into his face mask.
”Landed on my face and thought, ‘Nah! This is not it!’” said Book, the Notre Dame quarterback with Oak Ridge High School roots and a great deal more cheerful tales to tell.
”I was crying, a third-grader, but my dad said I’d be fine.”
Dad was right. Book stuck with it and wrote his own chapters of upright quarterback achievement.
That crushing tackle told him what words could not: This position will include some knocks and some glory and a lot in between. It’s how one handles such a burden that will make or buckle a man.
Book has made it. He grew into his role, excelled on youth teams and then dazzled in three varsity seasons at Oak Ridge, the longtime Sacramento-area powerhouse. He earned Sacramento Bee All-Metro honors and Bee All-Decade notice in drawing national recruiting interest as a strong-armed leader with accuracy and tenacity, passing for 7,632 career yards and 78 touchdowns.
Book gave a verbal commitment to play on scholarship at Washington State, but was moved by a recruiting visit to Notre Dame. He went on that campus visit with parents Kim and Rick and walked the grounds of South Bend in a state of awe. He soaked in the campus, stood and stared at Touchdown Jesus, and decided this could be the first step of the rest of his life.
“I’ll never forget that day,” Book said in a phone interview with The Bee as the season opener against Duke looms Saturday. “Just being on the campus, it was different. It was magical. It was awesome. It just had a different feel and you could sense the tradition. Best decision I ever made.”
‘Hardest position in football is being the Notre Dame quarterback’
Book enters this curious collegiate campaign in the midst of a pandemic as a team captain and a third-year starter for one of the most intensely watched positions in all of sport. He understands and embraces the responsibility of being the quarterback at Notre Dame, one that engulfs some and elevates others.
He’s been elevated. He is so connected with his teammates, including five returning offensive lineman, that he bypassed the NFL Draft for a final season as a college guy before football truly defines him as a professional.
Book graduated in December and is taking three undergraduate courses in Irish studies.
“I’ve learned more about Irish tradition, folklore, relations, and I’ve enjoyed it,” Book said with a laugh.
Book could teach a course about the pressures of his position, one that has to be lived to fully understand.
The teams people love to hate in America are the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL, the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA, the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the college landscape.
“The hardest position in football is being the Notre Dame quarterback, something I’ve heard a lot of people say,” Book said. “People expect more from that position. They count on you. It could be a glorified spot or a hectic one. It depends on how you play. Everyone wants to beat Notre Dame, and that’s why it’s great to be here.”
Said Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly in a Zoom interview with media, ”He’s not distracted by the position. He’s a leader and a quarterback at Notre Dame, and he’s comfortable in that position. He’s going to have a great year.”
What also comes with the territory of Book’s role is the social media feedback, where everyone is a sudden expert. The input is either balmy or stormy.
“If I play well, the social media stuff is great,” Book said with a laugh. “Play bad and it’s horrible. Honestly, it doesn’t bother me. That’s what social media is. Anyone can hide beyond a keyboard or a phone. People follow us. Mostly, my experiences have been great here.”
Book was a social media hit after a ball he threw away against Louisville last season found the face of a Louisville cheerleader some 40 yards away. It broke the nose of Elizabeth Scott.
Book sent her a note on Instagram to apologize. She accepted, joking she always wanted a new nose job and marveled at how her nose became a trending topic on Twitter.
”I thought people booed me because I threw the ball away but it was because the ball hit her,” Book said. “I felt bad. Heard that her uncle was a big Irish fan, too.”
Versatility and poise in high school and beyond
Book is 6-foot and 205 pounds, but larger in stature.
He is a passer with the ability to run. He is 21-3 as a starter with the Irish, hard to track down, hard to rattle. He is an early Heisman Trophy candidate and the pick to win it by longtime college football broadcaster Lee Corso.
”I heard that and thought that was pretty cool,” Book said, reminding that his sport is a team game, not an individual pursuit of prizes
Book embraced that thinking even in high school. As a sophomore, he had two defining games for Oak Ridge.
The first was at Grant in Del Paso Heights against the powerhouse Pacers, a roster dotted with college prospects. Grant players chased Book throughout the game but were not able to corner him. Book led his Trojans to victory.
Later that season, Oak Ridge trailed at Jesuit 42-21 at the half. As the game resumed, Book was so relaxed that he asked his math teacher, Steve White, how he graded out in a recent test. White laughed and told Book to focus on the game.
Book did. He tossed five touchdowns to key an overtime victory.
”That was a defining career memory for me,” Oak Ridge coach Eric Cavaliere said. “Ian asking about his math test in the middle of that comeback, that’s him — cool and calm. It’s interesting to me that he ended up at the same college as Joe Montana. I’m not saying Ian is the next Joe Montana, but they have that same demeanor.”
Joe Cool, Ian Cool
Cavaliere said Book’s “it” factor has always included his athleticism, approach and attitude.
”He’s super humble, and he’s still the same kid that was when he was here. He still has the same best friends from high school. He hasn’t changed. He’s a good, wholesome El Dorado Hills kid.”
Cavaliere added, “Ian’s handled the pressure well. Very few people in life play with that kind of scrutiny, one week, you’re the hero and the next, fans are demanding that you get replaced. That’s the nature of the job. Ian’s always been so level-headed, never too excited, never down.”
Book redshirted in 2016, got his first start in 2017 and later came off the bench to key a 21-17 win over LSU in the Citrus Bowl.
In 2017, Book sealed the starting job with his effort in a 56-27 rout of Wake Forest, passing for 324 yards and two touchdowns and running for three scores. Against No. 7 Stanford that season, Book passed for 278 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-17 victory.
In 2018, Notre Dame started 12-0 under Book, rose to No. 3 in the rankings and lost its first College Football Playoff game to Clemson. Book passed for 2,628 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2018 and went for 3,034 and 34 in 2019.
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly expects a banner Book season this fall.
“His leadership has been outstanding,” Kelly said in a Zoom interview with the media. “It was really good last year and it’s even better now. He’s developed a single-minded focus of what he wants for this team. It’s a championship or bust.”
Kelly added, “There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re going to see the best version of Ian Book this fall.”
Book in the bubble
To that end, Kelly said Book will have his own bubble of sorts after school and practices, anything to keep the program’s No. 1 position safe as the coronavirus concerns make this season a tenuous one.
Book will, in effect, be isolated from the general public, housed in his apartment or in some sort of campus bubble.
“We have Ian in a very different situation where he is by himself,” Kelly said in a Zoom interview with media.
Book is fine with this. Like his teammates and scores of college football fans, he wants a season. Everyone is wary of the coronavirus that has sheltered some seasons and closed some campuses.
“When football practice started, we all stayed in a hotel, then students got to campus, everyone in class, then a huge spike in cases,” Book said of the coronavirus. “The school sent everyone home for two weeks. Now we’re back on campus.
“Everyone has learned what they have to do to be safe. We’re depending on everyone to do their part. Once students realized everything was on the line, I could see a movement. It was, ‘OK, if we want to be here, to go to games, to have some fun experiences, we have to fix what we’re doing wrong. Football players, we don’t go anywhere after practices.”
Added Kelly, “It’s easy to get rattled and lose your focus and get distracted. This group has done an incredible job of managing that. It doesn’t mean they’re immune to what’s going on around them. They’re tuned into it.”
Notre Dame normally plays an independent schedule but in order to salvage the season, it joined the ACC for this fall. Notre Dame’s home opener against Duke will include a reduced crowd of 15,000.
Each Notre Dame player is allotted four tickets. Book’s parents will be there.
“They haven’t missed a game,” Book said. “I love it. I appreciate them. I’m excited for the season. Good nerves. There’s so much going on in our country right now. Football is just a game, but as long as we do it safe and right, we can do it.”