Ian Book has been here before.

The College Football Playoff, yes. But also on a stage where the spotlight always seems to shine on someone else.

Notre Dame’s quarterback has gone from overlooked recruit to potential career backup to leading the Fighting Irish to the Playoff 2 of the past 3 seasons. Even this week, as Rose Bowl preparations wrap up, Book’s place in the narrative is more of a passing character, the latest speed bump as No. 1 Alabama, a 20-point favorite, rumbles toward another national championship.

Just don’t tell Book that.

“We truly have an opportunity, and it starts with believing,” Book told reporters on a Zoom press conference Monday. “We believe we can win. We believe that we can win a national championship this year. That’s where it matters, and that’s where it starts.”

It was the only chance Book had to reflect publicly on his own place in the 2020 college football season, one that will go down in history as one of the wackiest ever thanks to COVID-19. The rest of his time at the virtual dais, he was peppered with questions about the Crimson Tide’s press coverage and his time spent playing seven-on-seven football with Bama running back Najee Harris in high school.

But Book has been here before.

He’s been here in his own, youthful imagination. The Rose Bowl is a game the El Dorado Hills, California, native grew up watching. He dreamed of getting here one day — although his vision probably didn’t include playing the Rose Bowl in Dallas with just 16,000 fans in attendance thanks to the coronavirus.

He’s been here as a 6-1, 200-pound prospect with all the tools and smarts to go with it who only had one Power 5 offer besides Notre Dame. Book was a lightly-regarded 3-star prospect, the No. 35 QB in his 2016 recruiting class. SEC fans are quite familiar with that QB class. Shea Patterson and Jacob Eason led the way at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Feleipe Franks, Jarrett Guarantano, Brandon McIlwain and Jalen Hurts were top-15 QBs. Jake Bentley and Terry Wilson were ranked ahead of Book, too.

Book committed to Washington State before the Irish showed late interest, and he seized the opportunity quickly with an official visit in October of 2015 and signed the following spring.

He’s been here as a redshirt in 2016, then a backup to Brandon Wimbush until the fourth game of the 2018 season. In his first game as a starter, Book threw for more than 300 yards and 5 touchdowns in a win against Wake Forest, and suddenly he was an outsider no longer.

A graduate student with a degree in marketing, Book is 30-4 as Notre Dame’s starter. His 8,718 yards through the air are second in school history. He’s rushed for over 1,400 more, second among Irish quarterbacks all-time.

His is a gunslinger’s game — the ability to keep plays alive with his feet, fit throws into tight windows on the run, convert no matter how dire it might seem or ugly the process might be.

“I hate to compare him to Joe Montana,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said, “but Joe Montana played at Notre Dame, and he just has a little bit of magic to him.

“He’s the heart and soul. He makes them go.”

And yet Book has also been here before because he has yet to nab that elusive, big win on this big of a platform. He was under center as a sophomore when Swinney’s Tigers stomped Notre Dame 30-3 in the semifinals. Book completed only half his passes.

He had two of his worst performances last season in losses to Georgia and Michigan. And Book’s 20-for-28, 219-yard showing in this year’s ACC title game wasn’t enough in a 34-10 loss to Clemson.

Now he gets Alabama, which features its own overlooked, unheralded 3-star QB recruit in Mac Jones. It’ll take a lot more than 10 points to keep pace with Jones, who leads the nation’s most prolific offense.

“I think he needs to play within himself and in the system,” Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said. “I don’t think there’s anything heroic that he needs to do that’s going to singlehandedly win us the game. I think if he operates the system and makes decisive and good decisions to put our offense in a position to be successful, then we’re gonna have a chance to win the game.”

Not many folks are giving the Irish, ranked No. 4 in the College Football Playoff and Associated Press polls, a shot to upset Alabama on Friday. They also don’t see Book as much more than a career backup in the NFL; most analysts project him as a late-round pick in this spring’s draft.

But that’s OK. Book has been here before.

“To be able to be in the Playoffs twice in my career is unbelievable,” he said. “We’ve just got a good program here at Notre Dame that gets it done. We’ve got to go finish it, though. We were able to make it there in ’18 and get close, but we didn’t finish the deal. We get another opportunity now with a lot of the guys who played in that game are now older, more mature, better leaders, better football players, and now we get that chance.

“We want to finish it the right way.”