SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman was eight questions deep into his post-practice press conference Wednesday when a query about the Notre Dame quarterback competition was finally floated his way, and with the hopes of gaining something more than a word salad in return.
To be fair, it’s to the fourth-year Irish head coach’s benefit to be vague, given the prospect of other college football teams’ poaching and the juxtaposition of the spring transfer portal window (April 16-25) to Notre Dame’s 15 spring practices, with session No. 1 unfolding Wednesday morning at the Irish Athletics Center.
So, both during the brief media observation window and the post-practice media exchange at Notre Dame Stadium that followed, the fact that sophomore-to-be QB CJ Carr changed his uniform number from 12 to 13 qualified as one of the newsier details encompassing senior Steve Angeli, junior Kenny Minchey, Carr and early enrolled freshman and the new No. 12, Blake Hebert.
“I don't know if there's a perfect science that I'm going to be able to tell you right now that this is exactly how we're going to do it,” Freeman said when asked about the specifics of the structure of the competition of not only who lands at No. 1, but how 2-3 might shake out as well.
“But the general theme of it's they're all going to get reps with the 1s. They're all going to get reps that we split. I'm talking Kenny, Steve and CJ. They're going to split reps, and each day could be different, but it's important for us to communicate with them beforehand.
"And no matter if they like what group they're going with or not — it shouldn't matter — that we're upfront and honest with them and then we give them feedback after each practice, and we'll name a starter when a starter clearly shows that he's the best quarterback.”
That means no set timetable, but Freeman’s history is that he’s never delineated the anointed starter by the time the Blue-Gold Game has been staged. It’s always been a fall training camp thing with him, though Sam Hartman’s overwhelming performance in the 2023 Blue-Gold Game and Tyler Buchner’s parachuting out to Alabama shortly thereafter that spring made any sport of announcement unnecessary.
Angeli is the most experienced — with a start at the end of the 2023 season in the Sun Bowl after Hartman had opted out, and 103 reserve game reps behind departed starter Riley Leonard in 2024 spread over 11 games.
Minchey and Carr had four snaps last season, all coming Sept. 14 in the 66-7 wallopping of Purdue. Carr went on to miss most of the regular-season’s practices with an elbow injury that was fully recovered by the time the Irish started their four-game College Football Playoff run against Indiana on Dec. 20.
“There's no need to put a timetable on it,” Freeman said. “You let those guys compete, and when a starter is determined, we're going to announce it. I'm excited. I truly love competition. I think it's going to make all three of those guys better.
“I know it's going to be a fair competition. I'm really excited for it and looking forward to seeing how everyone in that room enhances, but also at some point somebody's going to be named a starter.”
Notable numbers
Carr wasn’t the only player to swap jerseys. Four others did as well, and one of them switched sides of the ball along with that.
That would be junior nose guard Devan Houstan, who has been moved to the offensive line. The 6-1, 304-pound junior from Mississauga, Ontario, is now No. 52 after wearing 98 his first two seasons on campus.
“We want to give him an opportunity to maybe contribute to our football program more than he has in the past,” Freeman said, “and we think he has some skill set that would translate to the offensive line.”
Houstan logged 10 snaps over two games last season and recorded one tackle.
Two players, meanwhile, staying put at their original positions vacated the No. 20 jersey. Cornerback Leonard Moore is now No. 2, while running back Aneyas Williams is No. 22. The other jersey swap involved sophomore backup offensive guard Peter Jones, switching from 73 to 77.
And ND finally updated heights/weights for the first time since last August. There were a few notable gains that stood out, including sophomore running back Kedren Young bulking up from 5-11, 229 to 235 and looking and moving really good in practice 1 at that size.
There’s also sophomore nose guard Sean Sevillano Jr. listed at 6-2, 341, up from 6-1, 320; defensive tackle Jason Onye at 6-5, 308, up from 291 last season; and sophomore offensive tackle Guerby Lambert at 6-7, 334, up from 323 last season.
One interesting reduction was sophomore vyper end Loghan Thomas listed at 6-4, 213, down from 224 last season.
Success breeds ... delays
And Marcus Freeman isn’t complaining, but Notre Dame’s extended playoff run and an extremely late appearance on the calendar of Easter this year (April 20) prompted the Irish coach to adjust the spring dates.
The traditional end to spring practice, the Blue-Gold Game, won’t be the end of spring practice this year. But it will be staged, unlike a handful of other schools that have canceled their spring games for various reasons.
ND’s spring game will be April 12, but ND will have some practices take place after it to decompress the small spring window and get to the allowable maximum of 15.
“I decided after the season, we had to move the start of spring practice back about two weeks,” Freeman said. “And the reality is I did not want to cheat the strength-and-conditioning phase, the development phase of our team.”
And as far as keeping the Blue-Gold game as a part of Notre Dame spring football?
“It's important to me to use that as an opportunity — one, to let our players perform in front of our fans. But two, it's a chance to really integrate our community and our fans with this football program.
“I think that's so important to me, to give the opportunity to fans that maybe typically don't get the opportunity to come to a Notre Dame game. Or if they do, to give them another opportunity to come and engage with our players. I don't want to take away from that. There's a lot of pros and cons for each decision, but that went into my decision of keeping our spring game.”
Early returns on Chris Ash
Notre Dame’s replacement for Al Golden at defensive coordinator, Chris Ash, has made a strong first impression on Freeman so far through winter meetings and one practice, though the two were hardly strangers when Ash was hired.
“I've known coach Ash for quite a while,” Freeman said. “He was the defense coordinator at Ohio State with Luke Fickell. I got to know him, and we spent some time together after his tenure as head coach at Rutgers. And so, I've gotten to know him personally before we hired him as the defensive coordinator.
“I've been extremely pleased. Probably more than anything is the leadership, the ability to get three position coaches that have been here to be teammates. And I've been really pleased with that. Our coaching staff is close. Our defensive coaching staff has spent a lot of time together.”
Under Golden in 2024, Notre Dame was at or near the top of the FBS in all the key statistical categories, save rushing defense, which was 49th. And Golden, the new Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator since late January, was named the Broyles Award winner as the nation’s top assistant coach.
“We are going to do similar things that we've done in the past and maybe some things that are different,” Freeman continued. “In order to get on the same page, you have to spend time together.
“I'm really pleased with the leadership coming from that defensive staff, the camaraderie, the unity, and yeah, it's all going to reflect in the way our defense plays. And I'm really, really happy with that entire defense, but especially what coach Ash has done.”
Defining new GM Martin's role
While former Notre Dame general manager Chad Bowden continues to make waves on social media at his new school, USC, new Irish GM Mike Martin has more subtly put together a front-office staff and is pushing forward with Freeman’s vision for the job with a much different skill set and aversion to trolling than Bowden showed.
“With change, it creates an opportunity to bring in new personnel,” Freeman said. “And with any change, you want to feel like you enhance what you're doing. And that means, OK, you lose one guy, do you replace him with the exact same? Or do you kind of be creative and say, ‘OK, what do I see college football kind of going? And maybe who has strengths in that area that I see college football going?’”
Martin came to Notre Dame after 22 years in front office/scouting positions in the NFL, the last four of them with the Detroit Lions. And none of those jobs involved recruiting college players. Bowden, who spent four years at ND, including one when Freeman was defensive coordinator, was all about recruiting.
But Freeman values both what Martin was in the NFL with what he can become on the recruiting front.
“He's going to be the face of our personnel department,” Freeman said. “When potential student-athletes come on campus, he's going to have important conversations. It's going to be about relationships. I don't care if you're the general manager, the head coach or a position coach or a recruiter, it's going to be about relationships. And he leads our personnel department.
“But the other expectation is to make sure that we're recruiting the right guys and not wasting time on the wrong guys. And that once we identify you as the right guy, that's going to help us continue to elevate, then what's the plan to make sure that we do whatever it takes to get this person to come to Notre Dame and choose Notre Dame?”
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