2023 QB and Notre Dame target Kenny Minchey decommits from Pittsburgh
A potential domino has fallen in the Notre Dame football quarterback recruiting saga.
On Monday, 2023 three-star quarterback Kenny Minchey announced his decommitment from the University of Pittsburgh. Minchey's decision comes with 37 days remaining until the early signing period window opens for 2023 class football recruits Dec. 21.
Minchey had been committed to Pittsburgh since April 30. However, the 6-foot-3, 205-pound passer from Hendersonville (Tenn.) Pope John Paul Preparatory School reported his most recent scholarship offer from Notre Dame on July 30. He reports 18 scholarship offers in total. Rivals ranks him as the No. 14 pro-style quarterback and No. 9 player in Tennessee in, 2023.
Following Dante Moore's July 8 commitment to Oregon, the Irish offered four-star quarterback and Baylor commit Austin Novosad on July 11. Notre Dame hosted Novosad for an unofficial visit on July 26. But the Dripping Springs (Texas) product decided to stick with his Baylor commitment. And It led to Notre Dame offering Minchey next.
Throughout the next 3.5 months, the Irish have scouted several 2023 quarterbacks and evaluated a reclassification of 2024 quarterback commit CJ Carr. Still, they failed to host any 2023 quarterbacks on visits for its first four home games, and Carr has remained in the 2024 class. Minchey's decommitment marks the most significant development.
In the first four games of his senior season, Minchey shined by going 47-64 (73.4%) for 768 yards, 11 touchdowns and just one interception. However, a shoulder injury prevented him from playing the next six regular season games.
He returned for Pope John Paul II’s first-round playoff game on Nov. 4 and threw for 260 yards and four touchdowns in the victory. But then, in last Friday's season-ending loss, Minchey left the game in the first quarter and was held out for the remainder of the game with a shoulder injury.
Minchey concluded his senior season 67-99 (67.7%) for 1,042 yards, 15 touchdowns and one interception.
Since pledging to Pittsburgh on April 30, the only two publicly reported visits Minchey has made were to Pittsburgh on June 2 and Oct. 8. Before that, Minchey had visited Notre Dame on June 6, 2021, and Ohio State on June 2, 2021.
By the time those two visits took place, Minchey had already reported offers from Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, Marshall, Virginia, Vanderbilt, Michigan State and Virginia Tech. That was after a sophomore season in which he appeared in seven games and went 85-134 (63.4%) for 1,164 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and one interception.
Then, Minchey registered 3,280 passing yards on 215-351 (61.3%) completion for 32 touchdowns and nine interceptions during his junior season. It led to other publicly reported offers from Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee State, Memphis, Pitt, Tennessee at Martin, Toledo, Houston, South Florida and Alabama at Birmingham.
The Irish were the last team he announced a scholarship offer from.
If Minchey wanted to visit Notre Dame again, his next best chance would be Saturday — Notre Dame's last home game — against Boston College. Now that he is no longer committed to Pittsburgh, he can officially visit ND. The Irish do not host prospects on official visits who are committed elsewhere, because they ask their own commits to not take official visits elsewhere.
For more on where Notre Dame stands with Minchey, visit The Insider Lounge.
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