SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman’s grimace in response to yet another QB question probably was more telling than the words that immediately followed it.
And yet during a post-spring football wrapup Wednesday, the fourth-year Notre Dame head football coach didn’t completely rule out using both sophomore CJ Carr and junior Kenny Minchey in high-leverage game situations this fall at quarterback.
Like former Irish head coach Brian Kelly did in 2021, with Jack Coan as the starter and Tyler Buchner as a change-of-pace option, back when the now-grad senior was a freshman and a QB.
Which, incidentally, he may very well end up being again after spending last season as a walk-on wide receiver.
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No, the number of Notre Dame’s offseason quarterback story lines, as well as the intrigue level within them, didn’t seem to fade with the exit of senior Steve Angeli from the group. The most experienced quarterback on the Irish roster entered the transfer portal six days ago and on Wednesday landed at Syracuse, Notre Dame’s Nov. 22 Senior Day opponent.
Could his opposite number that day be both Carr and Minchey?
Freeman was careful how he framed that possibility. No to the QB 1-and-1A concept, but open to QB 2 having an intermittent role behind QB 1. Maybe.
“We're going to have a starter, and then you'll have a guy that can help our football team win games,” Freeman said during a 30-minute press conference. “If that means we have a special package for a guy, we will. But I am not a huge proponent of having truly two starters.
“That decision is going to be made when they help us make that decision. And I don't ever want to put a timetable on that. Let's hope this is before the first game, but at the end of the day, I believe there has to be one guy that is the starting quarterback.”
The first game, incidentally, is roughly four months and a week away, Aug. 31 in Miami.
In the interim, what was once a three-man competition, to be Riley Leonard’s successor as the starter, is down to two and will continue in earnest this summer and into fall camp.
“The thing you can create when you have a competition — a true competition, where it's 50-50, you have to battle it out — is you try to put some of that pressure that a real game presents,” Freeman said. “And you have to perform in practice, because you understand, if you don't perform consistently, that other guy's pretty good, and he might take off with this race.
“I'm pleased that we're going to have a true competition that we bring into fall camp and try to create some pressure situations for those guys that they have to perform, so that the first time they feel that pressure isn't going to be when we play Miami, Florida."
Whoever starts will have all of four game snaps logged from the 2024 season, and those came for both QBs in a 66-7 dismantling of Purdue on Sept. 14. The third scholarship QB, Blake Hebert, has zero career college snaps and was playing for the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Conn., in 2024.
Buchner, incidentally, has 402 career QBs snaps in college, though his most recent one came in 2023 during his one season at Alabama before transferring back to ND to initially play lacrosse and get his ND degree, then eventually to walk back on to the football team.
He did complete a pass last year — on a fake punt against USC on Nov. 30, a 23-yarder to tight end Mitchell Evans. And he converted a first down by running for four yards on a fake field goal against Georgia Tech on Oct. 19.
Buchner is in his final season of football eligibility, having gained a redshirt season in 2022, when a shoulder injury limited him to three games.
“We'll look at the total number of arms, bodies that we have to practice,” Freeman said, “but it's definitely under consideration to be able to move Tyler back into the quarterback room as we look into the summer and fall camp.”
Recalculating ND’s scholarship numbers
With the transfer portal closing at the end of the day Friday and federal judge Claudia Wilken yet to rule on whether roster limits will be set at 105 for 2025 as part of the proposed settlement in the landmark House v. NCAA case, Freeman was still able to reveal some of what Notre Dame’s roster management plan might look like beyond its current state of limbo.
Specifically, if the roster limit is set at 105.
Currently, the NCAA doesn’t set a roster limit per se. The average size for an FBS school in 2023, for instance, was 121. ND was at 118 in 2024. So, the roster limit would reduce the number of walk-ons and perhaps eliminate them entirely, eventually.
However, Freeman said ND’s inclination would be to raise the number of players on scholarship from the current NCAA maximum of 85 to 95. Maybe higher. Notre Dame is sitting at a projected 93 scholarship players for 2025 as of Wednesday.
“If we need to find a way to make sure there's more guys that don't have to pay for school, we have a plan to do that, too,” Freeman said.
The hope, Freeman said, is for there to be clarity on roster limits before the end of the day Friday, so walk-on players, whose roster spots that could be cut, could submit their names into the transfer portal and potentially find a new home for next season.
Keep in mind, Wilken is on record as wanting those types of players grandfathered in and not lose their spots. In fact on Wednesday, as reported by Yahoo Sports columnist Ross Dellenger, Wilken issued an order related to the House settlement, giving attorneys 14 days to phase in or/and grandfather in roster limits or she will deny the House settlement.
Beyond that messy math/legalese, Notre Dame could still add from the transfer portal, but Freeman reiterated that’s not likely.
“I don't ever want to say ‘never.’” he said. “If there's something that pops up that we think could help us truly become a better football team, then we’ve got to look at it and address it. That just doesn't mean talent, though.
“There could be talent that can add to your program. But if it's not right for the room, it's not worth it if it's not right for the big picture of your football program. But again, we will evaluate if there is a guy that is the right fit for the right room and make decisions here in the next week or so if there's something that pops up.”
O-line progress
Perhaps the only remaining mystery regarding Notre Dame offensive line heading into summer — a year after being seemingly nothing but mysteries — is whether junior Charles Jagusah stays at right guard and sophomore Anthonie Knapp at left tackle? Or do they eventually flip-flop?
But the starting five, in some alignment, appear to be Knapp, left guard Billy Schrauth, center Ashton Craig, Jagusah and right tackle Aamil Wagner. If that holds, they’ll have 55 previous college starts among them after last year’s opening night starters pooled six collective previous starts.
“I like that they all have big-game, big-moment experience,” Freeman said of the 2025 group. “They’re all really talented football players — high-ceiling guys. But there are still guys who have maybe played 2-3 games, so they have to continue to develop, too. I really am excited because they are high-ceiling guys.
“Billy and Aamil are probably as close to the ceiling as you can be, and they still have room to grow. And then you have three guys — Knapp probably played more than anybody — but again, young guys who really have room to continue to improve, who have all started for us. That’s what excites me.”
Sullivan Absher, Guerby Lambert, Joe Otting and June arrival Will Black are among the players expected to be in the second tier and pushing the first group.
“The depth of the room is really impressive,” Freeman said. “And credit to [O-line] coach [Joe] Rudolph for the job he’s done in recruiting. We’ve had some really good young guys and guys who maybe haven’t played who had a great spring.”
Freeman's spring (game) fever
With the trend in college football moving away from spring intrasquad games or at least doing so reluctantly, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman still sees plenty of reasons for staging the Blue-Gold game, which drew 40,121 to Notre Dame Stadium on April 12 for the 94th rendition.
That’s the third-largest Blue-Gold Game crowd on record, behind only the 2007 game for QB Jimmy Clausen’s debut (51,852), and 2006 in QB Brady Quinn’s final season (41,279) and for a team that would open the season at No. 2 in the AP poll.
“You can't put a value on our players having the opportunity to go out there and have to perform in front of their fans and in a game-like environment,” Freeman said. “And I think it's important. And again, it's a chance for our fans to engage with our players and our players to engage with our fans.”
Summer balancing act
Notre Dame continues to lean into sports science in finding the right balance between recovery from an unprecedented 16-game season for the Irish, ending on Jan. 20, and getting the necessary work done in the offseason to make another deep College Football Playoff run possible this season.
“We have a great [performance] team to come up with our plan,” Freeman said. “We have a foundation of a couple years of: This is what our plan was and how do we make it better? I’m not a guy who just says. ‘This is what we do.’ Challenge everything. Is there a better way to do it?
“We’ve done that this year in the spring, and we’re going to do it this year in the summer. Is there a better way to do it? If there is, we’re going to try it and figure it out. Our guys are going to work their tails off. They have to. You can’t be ready to play this physical, demanding game of football without being prepared the right way.”
Including backup defensive tackle Brenan Vernon, who underwent MCL surgery earlier this month, every player on the roster except tight end Cooper Flanagan (January Achilles injury) is expected to be ready for training camp in late July/early August.
And all but Verrnon, offensive tackle Guerby Lambert and nose guard Davion Dixon are expected to be full-go by the start of summer school and summer workouts in June.
“When you look at a 16-game season, I’m most pleased about really the preventable injuries that we were able to decrease,” Freeman said. “That, to me, is the telling sign: Is your team in shape and are you practicing the way you need to practice? Are you keeping guys healthy, especially with preventable injuries? There are some non-preventable injuries. It’s the game of football.”
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