College Football

Notre Dame QB Jack Coan ready to face former Wisconsin teammates

Updated Dec. 13, 2022 3:27 p.m. ET

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By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

Within the first five minutes of each of their weekly media conference calls, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly and Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst tried to dismiss the dominant storyline ahead of the Top-25 matchup between their two programs Saturday: Fighting Irish quarterback Jack Coan facing his former team.

"​​I think it's certainly a storyline," Chryst said, "and yet, I think it's important that it's Wisconsin versus Notre Dame. I think that, obviously, we have respect for Jack and appreciate who he is as a person and as a player here, teammate. But it's Wisconsin versus Notre Dame."

"Jack’s a competitor. He loved his time at Wisconsin, but it's a new chapter for him," Kelly said. "And he's very mature, level-headed. He wants to beat Wisconsin. But he wants to beat, the following week, Cincinnati, and the week after. I think we can make as much as we want and make it a story. In the building, it's not that much of a story to him."

The stage could not be bigger for the much-anticipated nonconference battle (noon ET, FOX and the FOX Sports app), with Soldier Field playing host to two schools that are separated by fewer than 250 miles but haven't met since 1964.

FOX's Big Noon Kickoff pregame show will be in Chicago, broadcasting live from the Great Lawn. The No. 18 Badgers have been installed as a 6.5-point favorite over the No. 12 Irish, according to FOX Bet.

Most eyes will be on Coan, who has led Notre Dame to a 3-0 start this season after starting 18 games in four years at Wisconsin. He was 12-6 as the Badgers' signal-caller before choosing to transfer to South Bend in January.

Coan threw for 3,278 yards with 23 TDs in Madison. At Notre Dame, he might surpass those stats in one season, as he has compiled 828 yards and eight TDs already.

Joel Klatt breaks down Notre Dame - Wisconsin matchup, Jack Coan facing his old team, Ohio State's struggles I THE HERD

Joel Klatt joins Colin Cowherd to preview the Big Noon Kickoff matchup between No. 12 Notre Dame and No. 18 Wisconsin. Klatt predicts how Notre Dame quarterback Jack Coan will fare against his former team.

For more up-to-date news on all things Notre Dame, click here to register for alerts on the FOX Sports app!

Perhaps, he would’ve never had this opportunity if not for breaking his foot in the preseason buildup to the 2020 season. But just days after undergoing surgery to repair his foot, a true freshman was announced as the starter.

In stepped Graham Mertz to lead the Badgers to a 3-3 season and the Duke's Mayo Bowl, and out went any guarantee that Coan would get his starting job back. This after Coan had led Wisconsin to the Big Ten Championship Game and to the Rose Bowl just a year prior.

During this period, Coan took a look around and decided Madison was no longer the place best for him to thrive. For his part, he, like Kelly and Chryst, has been gracious in his comments about leaving Wisconsin for Notre Dame.

"First, it was an extremely tough decision to leave Wisconsin," Coan told Sports Illustrated last spring. "I really loved it there and had so many great relationships there with the guys on the team, coaches and support staff. It was really tough for me. I just thought it was time for me to move on and go to a place where I thought it’d be a good opportunity for me. I thought there was no place like Notre Dame when it comes to football and culture and everything like that, the history. So, I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to come here."

And, let’s be clear, any time your final decision is Notre Dame, you’ve had options to play almost everywhere else.

"I was definitely talking to a few other schools for a little while," Coan said. "But Coach [Tommy] Reese didn’t want to reach out to me until after the season was over. He told me he was trying to focus on beating Alabama in the playoff."

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Coan and his family didn’t take long to discuss the option. Just a day or two later, he informed Reese that he wanted to play at Notre Dame. While there’s tradition, history and the prospect of waving around a Notre Dame graduate degree like a golden ticket in front of Wonka’s factory, the reason he chose ND is the same reason ND chose him. 

It’s the reason Coan so wisely alluded to in describing his decision-making process. ND and Coan? They’re chasing the College Football Playoff.

After losing a proven talent at quarterback, the most en-vogue decision, especially if a head coach is unsure of the guy he recruited to be The Guy, is to trawl the transfer portal for a proven commodity.

Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley did just that with Jalen Hurts (after having a look at Austin Kendall for three years) and ended up taking OU to its fourth CFP appearance in five years. LSU coach Ed Oregon did just that with Joe Burrow (after having a look at Myles Brennan) and ended up winning the 2019 national title.

Kelly is, once again, in a position to return to the playoff — with a quality win this weekend against a ranked opponent at a neutral site to add to an undefeated record. It’s also a chance for the Fighting Irish to show they’re for real after nail-biting victories against winless Florida State on the road and middling Toledo at home.

Meanwhile, Chryst has to trust that he and his staff made the right decision in choosing to stick with their younger, if a bit more talented, pupil in Mertz, who will play in the biggest game of his career so far at Soldier Field.

The ease of the switch for Coan from Wisconsin to ND also demonstrates just how similar the programs have become over the past decade. Each prides itself on running the football as an identity.

Notre Dame has put 10 offensive linemen into the NFL over the past 10 years, and two of the best guards in the sport, Zack Martin and Quenton Nelson, have earned first-team NFL All-Pro selections a combined six times. The Badgers, meanwhile, have had 14 offensive linemen drafted since 2010. That’s second only to Ohio State (16).

In a game that’s expected to be low-scoring, quarterback play could prove pivotal, and, so far, Coan has answered the bell in that regard. 

Indeed, against Toledo, with just a minute and change left to play, he dislocated a finger on his throwing hand, ran to the sideline, told the trainer to put it back, and promptly finished leading the Irish to a comeback victory. Perhaps Mertz has that kind of play in him, too, and there’s no better time for him to demonstrate that than Saturday.

After a heartbreaking loss at home in their season opener to Penn State, the Badgers need a win against a ranked opponent to have a chance of sneaking back into the CFP conversation. 

Wisconsin fans would like nothing more than for that to come against Notre Dame and the quarterback who left Madison for South Bend.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.

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