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Mike Sanford Not Worried About Ian Book’s National Profile

Book was committed to Washington State, but flipped to Notre Dame.
Book was committed to Washington State, but flipped to Notre Dame. (BGI/Andrew Ivins)

Mike Sanford isn’t too concerned with the fact that Note Dame signee Ian Book wasn’t an Elite 11 finalist. He actually prefers that the Bay Area quarterback wasn’t one.

Sanford said on National Signing Day that while many of the top quarterbacks around the country spent much of the offseason trying to qualify for the three-day event at NIKE’s World Headquarters in July, he admired Book’s decision to pass on a chance to participate in the nation’s premier quarterback competition and instead focus on his team.

“The national landscape of the quarterback position — to me — means absolutely nothing,” the Notre Dame offensive coordinator said. “The camp circuit means absolutely nothing. I actually think in regards to Ian Book, this is a guy that missed out on some opportunities in the Elite 11 because he decided to go to his high school team’s camp. So instead of going to an Elite 11 regional here, here and here, he said, ‘You know what? The most important thing for me is Oak Ridge High School football, so I’m going to go to a team camp at Southern Oregon University and have a chance to get an extra three or four days of padded football with my team.’

“So to me, the national landscape isn’t that important. To me, it’s finding the best player in the nation relative to what we need and what fits our program.”

Book appears to have checked off all of the boxes.

Sanford said that when he sat down with head coach Brian Kelly and associate head coach Mike Denbrock back in the spring to evaluate arms, the trio threw out the national rankings. That’s what didn’t prevent Book — the No. 14 pro-style quarterback in the country per Rivals.com — from rising up the list of potential targets.

“We do not care about the big name — at all,” Sanford said. “We care about the fit for the University of Notre Dame. ... We believe we found the best football player at the best fit for University of Notre Dame and after really watching the season play out, watching the all-star games play out and having a chance to be present for more workouts of Ian’s during the contact period, it just confirmed all that stuff we believed.”

The 6-0 190-pound Book, who committed to Notre Dame in early August after flipping from Washington State, wasn’t invited to any of the big three postseason high school all-star games. While Sanford wasn’t afraid to hint at the omission, he explained that stars don’t show Book’s potential, it’s instead the production.

Book threw for 3,049 yards his senior season and ran for 779 more while accounting for 42 total touchdowns. It was a performance that carried an Oak Ridge team deep into the state playoffs.

“You’re always looking for a quarterback that’s a winner,” Sanford said. “He made his team better with his presence. He’s a guy that took a program that hadn’t had a bunch of double-digit wins the past few years, and really resuscitated that program and got it to come together his senior year.”


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