I honestly really do believe that the whole narrative that Ian Book either lacked the ability to throw deep or at least more aggressively downfield, or that he lacked the courage, which is, I suppose something else, and simply refused to do so unless the WR was totally wide open and there was no chance that anything could go wrong....
I think that thesis is overblown, if not complete and utter bullshit, let's just say. It's a hater's criticism, first of all, to apply to a QB who otherwise is so obviously a good, successful QB on an undefeated team. And quite frankly, I would say the extent to which such a heavy-handed, unfriendly critique of Book has gone national, and you have loser scouts saying the same shit on their podcasts or youtube channels... is thanks to all the haters among ND's own fanbase, Bryan Driskell chief among them. He was always minimizing everything he could about Book, and always playing up to the point of almost inventing things that weren't really there, anything you could maybe plausibly criticize Book for and get away with it. And he had the bully pulpit as one of the ND fanbase's leading voices, and most football-knowledgable journos.
And that became the default narrative of Ian Book. And if Book really was on the overcautious side as a passer - which at this point remains only a thesis and not a proven fact - there are worse things in the world for a QB to be than that, considering all the other excellent qualities he possessed, and all the success he achieved.
Personally, I just don't quite understand why ripping on and resenting Book was so irresistible to so many haters. Because one thing I can say for certain, if Ian Book had been a top 100 recruit out of HS, there's no way in a million years he ever would have come in for all the shit he took. NEVER. You can take that to the bank for certain. Maybe that's all it was, and ND fans simply hate underdogs. Which is probably very true.
