SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman didn’t pretend that he and his coaching staff have spent much time preparing for Notre Dame’s Gator Bowl matchup with No. 19 South Carolina on Dec. 30.

That’s because Notre Dame’s head coach and his 10 assistants spent the week traveling the country to visit with high school recruits and their families. The staff may have checked on transfer portal players as well. The Irish regrouped on campus Saturday for practice and will practice again Sunday.

“We haven't had a chance really to game-plan much,” Freeman said after Saturday's practice. “Coaches did a little bit on the road, and so we had maybe 10 minutes today kind of just focusing on South Carolina, but still the main focus was about us and how do we continue to improve, and will be similar tomorrow.

“Then as we get back next week, we'll be ready to truly focus on South Carolina and bowl prep and opponent prep.”

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All the other obligations left little time to settle on a specific plan at quarterback for the bowl game. Both sophomore Tyler Buchner, who started the first two games of the season before being sidelined with a left shoulder injury that required surgery, and freshman Steve Angeli, who made only two appearances this season in relief of now-transferring starter Drew Pyne, have been taking reps with the first-team offense.

“Tyler's practiced the majority of all the practices, and so we'll really sit down probably next week and just say, ‘Hey, what's the plan?’ as we really start focusing on South Carolina. Right now, I just want all those guys getting reps and rolling and continuing.

“Tyler hasn't played football for a long time. Just getting him in there with a bunch of different groups of receivers and O-linemen, and let him get acclimated. But he's looked good. He's done a good job in practice. Steve has done a pretty good job, too.”

What the Irish will ask Buchner to do should rely less on his running ability. He averaged 12 carries per game in the first two games without finishing the 26-21 loss to Marshall on Sept. 10. Through two games, the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Buchner led the Irish in carries (24), rushing yards (62) and rushing touchdowns (2).

What Buchner will need to do is be more efficient and productive as a passer. He completed 28 of his 50 passes (56%) for 378 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. Buchner’s efficiency rating of 111.5 was much lower than the 155.3 Pyne achieved as his replacement.

“Our offense is at a different point than we were in those two games,” Freeman said. “We have an identity and the ability to run the ball and the ability to create, as we say, easy completions. That won't change whoever’s at quarterback. That's our identity.

“We have to be able to run the ball and we have to be able to take advantage of the things that defenses are giving us in the passing game. And those are big things that we have started to do.”

All season long, Freeman said, Notre Dame’s quarterbacks haven’t been live targets in practice — meaning the defenders were not allowed to tackle them. That likely won’t change in the lead-up to the Gator Bowl for Angeli or Buchner, the latter of whom hasn’t been taken to the ground since the play against Marshall that created a high-grade sprain in his non-throwing shoulder.

“It probably won’t happen,” Freeman said of Buchner taking full contact in practice. “You can’t take a chance of your quarterbacks getting hit in practice. Not at this point in the season. There wasn’t one point I 'lived up' the quarterbacks in fall camp. You just can’t take that chance of getting your quarterbacks hit and hurt in practice.

“I know he hasn’t taken live reps. You get bumped enough. They’re in the red jersey, but sometimes they run that ball or those D-linemen might get yelled at for touching the quarterback, but you’re going to get bumped enough. We’re not going to live him up. There’s no way.”

Tight ends Mitchell Evans and Holden Staes and defensive ends Jordan Botelho and Junior Tuihalamaka have big shoes to fill. But they don’t have to worry about replacing NFL-bound tight end Michael Mayer or NFL-bound defensive end Isaiah Foskey by themselves in the Gator Bowl.

“As I've told our coaches and some of our players, you're not replacing Michael Mayer's production and Isaiah Foskey's production with one person," Freeman said. "Those guys are going to be future NFL Draft picks. They’re some of the best that have done it here at Notre Dame.

“But you replace their production through different ways, through multiple people, through schematic changes that you make.”

Mayer was Notre Dame’s team leader in catches (67), receiving yards (809) and receiving touchdowns (9). Foskey led the Irish in sacks (11), tackles for loss (14) and quarterback hurries (6).

Evans, a sophomore, played in the last seven games of the regular season and started the last six after recovering from offseason foot surgery. Yet he had seven more rushing attempts in the Mitch-A-Palooza quarterback sneak package than receptions (0). Staes, a freshman, played in 10 games mostly as the third option at the position. His first and only career catch went for 11 yards against BYU.

Botelho, a junior, saw his role expand as Foskey’s backup at the vyper end position when graduate senior Justin Ademilola was moved over to play field end more frequently. In the last five games, Botelho tallied seven tackles, 2.5 sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss. Tuihalamaka, a freshman, played very little vyper with a high of six snaps coming against Syracuse. He started at linebacker against Navy and played special teams in all 12 games. Tuihalamaka’s six career tackles don’t make for much of a résumé, but that’s OK.

Notre Dame could also chose to play Ademilola at vyper again.

“It's definitely going to increase their roles,” Freeman said of Evans, Staes, Botelho and Tuihalamaka. “But they don't have to be Michael Mayer. They don't have to be Isaiah Foskey.

“They have to understand that in order for us to replace that production, they're going to have to do their job extremely well.”

• Though Notre Dame has focused on developing the middle and lower parts of its depth chart the last couple weeks, Freeman isn’t looking at the bowl as preparation for next season.

“Your only focus, as you get close to this game, is to win the game,” Freeman said. "Right now being 20 days away, you still have time to truly just go into game planning and the focus all being game planning. Right now, that's the great part about playing in a bowl game is you're going to get 10 to 15 extra practices.”

• Freeman wasn’t aware of the status of NFL evaluations for players like safety Brandon Joseph and Justin Ademilola. But he’s confident they will be given enough information to make a decision to leave Notre Dame or return for another season.

“They all have a good sense of how the NFL sees them,” Freeman said. “It isn’t hard to be able to have those conversations and communication with where a large group of NFL personnel sees our players at. Then they make the decision that’s best for them.”

• Cornerback TaRiq Bracy, who missed the Nov. 26 USC game with a hamstring injury, and wide receiver Tobias Merriweather, who missed the last three games with lingering symptoms from a concussion, are both healthy and practicing, Freeman said.

“Both of them,” he said, “are good to go.”

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