The biggest Notre Dame football post-spring news happened on Thursday morning, quarterback Steve Angeli will enter the transfer portal.
That leaves the Irish with two main competitors for the starting job in CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey. Head coach Marcus Freeman will now have just two players battling it out from now until the fall for the starting job.
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This wasn’t all that surprising that one of the three would transfer, but after Angeli waited his turn to take over the Notre Dame starting job and no one being named the guy,
This his how Marcus Freeman wanted it but…
If you haven’t heard, Freeman wanted two of them to separate, and while he didn’t publicly say one could transfer, that was the most likely scenario. He recently said that he didn’t want any of his potential transfer conversations getting leaked to the media, and while Angeli’s didn’t, the move isn’t surprising in the least. This went almost exactly how Freeman wanted it to, and now he is down to two.
The new starter will lack experience
Part of the reason why I thought Angeli would win out was due to his limited experience at the position. It just went in line with what Freeman has done in the past. Notre Dame will now enter the year with either a quarterback who hasn’t thrown a pass in college, Carr, or one that has thrown just one in Minchey. This doesn’t seem like the makeup of a team that will contend for a College Football Playoff spot, but with a defense, offensive line and running game that the Irish have, it will make it much easier to ease the starter into playing at this level.
Freeman’s recruiting has taken over the program
Angeli wasn’t a Freeman recruit, but both Carr and Minchey were. By going after transfer starters the last two seasons in Sam Hartman and Riley Leonard, it enabled Freeman to not have to find his homegrown quarterback right away, and gave him an opportunity to recruit multiple potential starters. When you include Blake Hebert, the top three at the position are all Freeman guys. It’s happening all over the roster, but we are now seeing its impact on the quarterback room.
Disaster could strike if…
If an injury was to happen either or even if one of them decides to enter the portal after fall camp. Carr dealt with an elbow injury during the year, which limited this throwing for much of it. Minchey hasn’t been bit by the bug, but anything could happen between now and when the season starts. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Notre Dame were to add a transfer with experience to help guide these two (one who knows starting isn’t an option), and also as an insurance plan if said disaster were to strike.
Upside over experience
This to me was the biggest signal from Freeman, he wants the offense to take a big step and while Angeli has a high floor, each of the current combatants for the starting job offer tantalizing upside. Long has the Notre Dame offense held this team back, and now Freeman is taking a bit of a gamble to take the next step. I think it was the right move for both parties, but the jury is still out if it was correct.
This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Thoughts on Notre Dame football and its quarterback situation
