One-time starting QB Tyler Buchner rejoining Notre Dame team as walk-on receiver

FILE - Alabama quarterback Tyler Buchner warms up before an NCAA college football game against LSU, Nov. 4, 2023, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Former Alabama and Notre Dame quarterback Buchner is returning to the Fighting Irish team as a walk-on wide receiver. Buchner, who announced his decision Friday, May 31, 2024, in an open letter to Notre Dame fans, was a starter for the Fighting Irish to begin the 2022 season before missing 10 games with an injury. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt, File)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Former Alabama and Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner is returning to the Fighting Irish team as a walk-on wide receiver.

Buchner, who announced his decision Friday in an open letter to Notre Dame fans, was a starter for the Fighting Irish to begin the 2022 season before missing 10 games with an injury. He returned to lead the team to a Gator Bowl victory against South Carolina.

Buchner followed offensive coordinator Tommy Rees to Alabama and wound up starting the third game of last season against South Florida, going 5 of 14 for 34 yards. Buchner ended last season behind starter Jalen Milroe and backup Ty Simpson.

He then went back to South Bend as a lacrosse player. Buchner wrote that coach Marcus Freeman and his staff embraced his return.

“It would have been easy for the football coaching staff to see me just as a player who had left, but instead, I am grateful they were able to see me as a young man eager to return and contribute in any way I could for the greater good of the team,” he wrote in a letter posted on the Notre Dame web site.