Former Alabama quarterback Tyler Buchner won a national championship in college lacrosse with Notre Dame on Monday, less than five months after Nick Saban announced his retirement. It has been an absolutely wild 18 months for the former four-star recruit from La Jolla, California.
He was in Tuscaloosa last semester!
Buchner, the 10th-ranked signal-caller in the recruiting Class of 2021, received 16 scholarship offers to play football out of high school. Quinn Ewers, Caleb Williams and J.J. McCarthy were a few of the names that were listed ahead of him as a prospect.
The 6-foot-1, 215-pound quarterback ultimately committed to Notre Dame over Alabama, Georgia, Oregon, USC and Michigan, among others. Buchner enrolled in South Bend to begin the spring semester of 2021 and played in 10 games as a freshman, mostly in garbage time.
He saw much less action in 2022 as the backup to Drew Pyne. However, when Pyne hit the transfer portal, Buchner was thrust into the starting job for the Fighting Irish in the Gator Bowl against South Carolina!
It was a chaotic game. Notre Dame won 45-38.
Buchner was named MVP of the 2022 Gator Bowl. Even though he also threw three interceptions, he completed 18 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns.
Meanwhile, down in Alabama, Saban needed a quarterback to compete with Jalen Milroe. The greatest college football coach of all-time and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees added Buchner to the mix shortly after the spring game.
Milroe ultimately won the starting job during fall camp. However, some early struggles led Saban to go to the bench. Buchner was thrust into action against USF in Week 3.
Unfortunately, it didn’t go quite as planned. He completed only five of 14 passes for 34 yards.
Milroe was the starter from that point forward.
Tyler Buchner was relegated to No. 3.
The Crimson Tide went on to reach the College Football Playoff and lost in the Rose Bowl. Buchner hit the transfer portal shortly thereafter and landed back in South Bend… for lacrosse.
Notre Dame won the national title in 2023. It went back-to-back with a dominant win over Maryland on Memorial Day. Jordan Faison, who actually became a breakout wide receiver for the Irish last fall, scored a nasty behind-the-back goal in the national championship victory.
Meanwhile, his fellow two-sport star was on the sideline. Buchner won a National Championship in lacrosse with Notre Dame in the same year that he won an SEC Championship in football with Alabama.
It has been a wild journey for Tyler Buchner!
The 2022 Gator Bowl MVP at Notre Dame started a game at quarterback for a team that reached the College Football Playoff and got to cut down the nets with his original school as a midfielder in lacrosse. His career is literally one of one!