Former Notre Dame beginning quarterback Tyler Buchner, who joined the college’s lacrosse group this spring after enjoying soccer final fall at Alabama, will return to the Preventing Irish soccer group for the 2024 season as a walk-on.
Buchner will play huge receiver for the Irish. He had one help in 10 video games as a reserve midfielder for Notre Dame’s lacrosse group, which received its second straight nationwide championship Monday towards Maryland. Buchner, a junior, can even play lacrosse for Notre Dame in 2025.
“With the ability to play the sport I’ve liked since I can bear in mind and enjoying for Notre Dame had been my dream,” Buchner wrote in a letter to the Notre Dame group. “I risked all of it and believed I had misplaced all of it, as I didn’t suppose even returning to soccer at Notre Dame can be within the playing cards.”
The 6-foot-1, 215-pound participant opened the 2022 season as Notre Dame’s beginning quarterback earlier than lacking 10 video games to harm. After serving to Notre Dame to a Gator Bowl win, he competed for the beginning job in spring 2023 with Sam Hartman earlier than transferring to Alabama, the place he reconnected with offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.
Final fall, Buchner began Alabama’s Week 3 sport towards South Florida however struggled, finishing 5 of 14 passes for 34 yards. In his letter, Buchner wrote that he then was benched for the primary time in his profession, “fell right into a deep emotional gap,” and “felt hopeless and hated soccer.” He wrote that he had scholarship alternatives to play quarterback elsewhere however needed solely to return to Notre Dame, the place he took 9 lessons this spring to finish his diploma.
Buchner will be a part of a large receiver group that features Jordan Faison, a former walk-on who starred for Notre Dame’s lacrosse group this season, scoring 21 objectives.
“It might have been simple for the soccer teaching workers to see me simply as a participant who had left, however as a substitute, I’m grateful they had been in a position to see me as a younger man desirous to return and contribute in any means I may for the higher good of the group,” Buchner wrote.
Coach Marcus Freeman instructed ESPN in April that he had seen Buchner on the lacrosse area and wished him effectively as he reacclimated to the game.
“He is a good younger man and comes from an amazing household that can proceed to do nice issues within the athletic world, however [also] within the sport of life,” Freeman mentioned then. “We’re an enormous fan of Tyler Buchner, and I look ahead to watching him have a lot success.”