SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Instead of jumping on a slow-building national trend and canceling its spring football game to discourage transfer-portal poaching and useful scouting tape for its 2025 fall opponents, Notre Dame used the confusion option.
Starting with the final score: Blue (offense) 76, Gold (defense) 31.
Which sounds like either the scoreboard operator jumped the gun Saturday on the coming implementation of Notre Dame Stadium’s new alcohol sales policy or new defensive coordinator Chris Ash has some ‘splainin’ to do.
In reality, it was neither.
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What the 94th Blue-Gold Game was, beyond the latest occasion to invoke the name of 2007 Blue-Gold MVP-turned-forgotten soul Junior Jabbie, was a chance to dig through some disjointed impressions to add to what is very much an incomplete-but-building big picture of what the 2024 national runners-up could be in 2025.
And yet one that, notably and significantly, continues to feature pleasant surprises where it needs them the most (interior defensive line, wide receiver, tight end, safety), and nothing that could be diagnosed as hopelessly unfixable or in need of a transfer-portal add in April/May.
Which is where you want to be in April, as a 2025 College Football Playoff aspirant.
“There’s a lot of good on both sides of the ball,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman offered after a reported 40,621 took in an unusual format and a contrived — perhaps broken — scoring system. “I told [the players] in the locker room, I need to fix the scoring system a little bit and find a way to get the defense some more points. Both sides of the ball did a lot of good.”
Saturday’s rendition was the first of Freeman’s four in which there wasn’t a team draft before the game to split up the side evenly, wasn’t a traditional game format, didn’t have four quarters — instead three untimed periods of four offensive drives each, and each of which started at different situational points.
Each of the three QBs contending to be Riley Leonard’s successor as ND’s starter — senior Steve Angeli, junior Kenny Minchey and sophomore CJ Carr — got four drives apiece, though Angeli shared one of his with freshman and fourth-stringer Blake Hebert.
For the record their bottom lines, devoid of coming context, looked as follows:
• Angeli 8-of-11 passing for 108 yards and one TD (to freshman Scrap Richardson) with no interceptions. He was credited with one rush for minus-8 yards. And the rushing yards for all three QBs — who couldn’t be tackled, by Freeman’s edict — felt underrepresented.
• Minchey was 6-of-14 passing for 106 yards and no passing TDs or picks. He was credited with one yard rushing on six carries. That included a four-yard scoring run, punctuated by an end zone back flip.
• Carr was 14-of-19 for 170 yards and two TDs (one to freshman Elijah Burress, one to sophomore walk-on Xavier Southall) with one interception. He was credited with one yard rushing on two carries.
“Those guys have been battling,” Freeman assessed of the QBs. “They’ve all improved. They’re all doing some really good things. It’s crazy to think that you got three guys that all can lead your program to a victory and be your starting quarterback.
“We’ll evaluate it. We’ll talk about it and have discussions moving forward. You would like to be able to go in the fall with a two-quarterback battle. It’s really hard with truly having a three-quarterback battle. We’ve got to sit down and have conversations about what’s best for our program, what’s best for our quarterbacks. We’ll make those decisions in the future.”
There were also random 7-on-7 periods interspersed throughout the two-hour streaming window on Peacock, including Hebert leading the offense in the very first game-like action — to the bewilderment of those in the stands and the press box.
The non 7-on-7 stuff consisted of 93 plays — roughly 30 more than the Irish ran in an average game in 2024 — and 531 total yards with no punts or kickoffs.
What does all that mean? More numbers to decode.
And that’s really the trick of any Blue-Gold Game, foraging the useful info from the intentional mirages, amplified by vanilla schemes, and blending it with context.
So here it is:
► Unlike most Blue-Gold Games, this wasn’t the 15th and final practice session. It was practice No. 12 of 15, the confluence of ND having to start late due to its extended playoff run and deal with the awkwardly late placement of Easter (April 20) at the other end.
► There are 12 freshmen who won’t enroll for another two months and two more transfers — probable starting wide receiver Malachi Fields (Virginia) and tight end depth piece Ty Washington (Arkansas) — who won’t arrive until June as well.
Then there’s projected starters/key rotational pieces who didn’t participate Saturday because of injury rehab, precaution to prevent from aggravating a minor injury or a lacrosse commitment. They include running back Jeremiyah Love, center Ashton Craig, wide receivers Micah Gilbert and Jordan Faison, defensive ends Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore, grad transfer safety Jalen Stroman and nickel Devonta Smith.
► A bit of a surprise was seeing left tackle Anthonie Knapp, left guard Billy Schrauth and right tackle Aamil Wagner all playing a few series with Charles Jagusah after the three of them were held out of last weekend’s largely closed scrimmage in practice No. 9.
► Another surprise was how helpful the unusual game format was in helping piece together new insights into the growth arc of this team.
Among the most significant:
Every quarterback offered reasons Saturday why he should emerge as No. 1. But it’s not all about what you see now. It’s having the ability to see around the corner at what could be and how soon.
And in that light, Carr looks like the QB who’d give the Irish the best chance to win in 2025, despite Angeli having the largest sample size in games and Minehey having the widest skill set. Yes. this is a first-world problem … unless the upcoming transfer portal window (April 16-25) claims more than one of them.
New running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider has first-world problems too. The desire to go no more than four deep with six who look like they could help the team’s bottom line. Sixth-stringer and freshman Nolan James Jr., for instance, had 18 yards on four carries and had a game-high 60 receiving yards on three receptions. …
And yet Love needs to get more than the 10 carries a game he averaged last season.
When the Irish offensive line projected starters were in the game together — with versatile Sullivan Absher filling in for Craig — the Irish protected the passer and elevated the running game.
Sixth-year senior Kevin Bauman made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch from Carr on a sideline fade route for a 23-yard gain to reinforce that he’ll be more than just a great comeback story but an actual contributor to a tight end room getting strong play from senior Eli Raridon as well.
“I’m really pleased with that room,” Freeman said.
Safety Luke Talich’s game-high nine tackles, including two during a goal-line stand, is indicative of the kind of play the Irish have been getting from the former walk-on from Wyoming all spring. And others like him, like sophomore Tae Johnson, who played cornerback last year.
Even with losing two-time All-American Xavier Watts to the NFL Draft, could the two-time national statistical champ in pass-efficiency defense be even better in 2025? Maybe so.
Other non-starters in the back end flashed impressively, like sophomore cornerback Karson Hobbs and junior Ben Minich, who moved from safety to backup nickel and had the Carr interception.
The interior defensive line still has the most unknowns, and yet they’re gaining credibility with each passing practice. Another comeback story — Jason Onye — might be the best of a deep bunch, with young players like 6-2, 341-pound sophomore Sean Sevillano Jr., pushing for a spot among transfers Jared Dawson and Elijah Hughes and two of the returning known quantities — Gabe Rubio and Donovan Hinish.
With special teams coordinator Marty Biagi remaking North Carolina grad transfer kicker Noah Burnette’s swing, expecting a finished product there Saturday was a stretch. Special teams will fall into place in August, with the races for returners heating up then as well.
The two wild cards Freeman can’t control is when roster limits/scholarship counts are firmly in place for 2025, both likely changing the calculus of Notre Dame’s roster. The other is who might unexpectedly plunge into the portal as early as Wednesday, when it opens and before spring practice even concludes.
“If a guy on our current roster is interested in getting in the portal, I’m sure we’ll have those conversations,” Freeman said. “At the end of the day, we’ll figure out what’s best for them, for us. The same thing is we’re not actively seeking to add to our roster.
“We’re really happy with what we got. If something comes to our attention that we see adds value to our roster and our program, then we have a conversation about it. There’s nothing unintentional right now about these upcoming weeks. We’re going to practice. We’re going to be together. We’re going to work. If somebody decides to go into the portal, then we’ll adapt and adjust.”
In other words business as usual amid the confusion, contrived or otherwise.
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