SOUTH BEND, INDIANA – APRIL 12: CJ Carr #13 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish throws a pass during … More
Three times in the past four seasons, Notre Dame has started a veteran transfer at quarterback. The Fighting Irish are not alone in that trend, as numerous other major programs have relied on transfers at the sport’s most important position.
This fall, though, Notre Dame will start an inexperienced quarterback who signed with the college out of high school. The Fighting Irish have narrowed their choice to either CJ Carr, a current freshman, or Kenny Minchey, a current sophomore. Steve Angeli, a junior and the most experienced quarterback on Notre Dame’s roster, announced his commitment to Syracuse on Wednesday after Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman decided to have a two-man competition for the starting spot.
Carr, the grandson of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, was the sixth-ranked quarterback in the high school class of 2024, per the 247Sports Composite. Carr, who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 209 pounds, had offers from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Penn State, Michigan and other major schools before committing to Notre Dame in the summer before his junior high school season.
Carr redshirted last season at Notre Dame after sustaining an elbow injury in September, but he was impressive during the annual Blue-Gold Game spring scrimmage this month, completing 14 of 19 passes for 170 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Minchey, meanwhile, was the No. 14 quarterback in the high school class of 2023, per the 247Sports Composite. He originally committed to Pitt, but he changed his mind after several months and signed with Notre Dame, which offered him a scholarship shortly before his senior high school season began.
Minchey, who is listed at 6-foot-2 and 206 pounds, appeared in three games as a freshman and one game as a sophomore. He has only attempted three passes in college, completing all of them for 16 yards.
Despite the inexperience, Freeman liked what he saw of Carr and Minchey in the spring.
“Both, we believe, have the ability to be the starting quarterback,” Freeman told reporters during a Wednesday press conference. “Both have done a tremendous job improving through spring practice. Every single quarterback has improved. It was awesome to see.”
He added: “It’s just tough when you have limited reps to truly say somebody separated themselves. There were certain days they’d get 12 team reps each. That’s not many…It’s hard to have a true, three-quarterback battle in fall camp. There’s just not enough reps to go around.”
That left Angeli as the odd man out. Angeli, a three-star prospect in high school, enrolled at Notre Dame in 2022, making him the veteran of the group. During three seasons, he appeared in 21 games, completing 58 of 80 passes (72.5%) for 772 yards, 10 touchdowns and only one interception.
Angeli’s best performances came in the postseason. He made the only start of his career in the 2023 Sun Bowl, completing 15 of 19 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns in Notre Dame’s 40-8 victory over Oregon State. And in the College Football Playoff semifinal in January against Penn State, Angeli entered the game late in the first half after starter Riley Leonard went into the concussion protocol. Angeli completed 6 of 7 passes for 44 yards on the final drive of the half, leading to Mitch Jeter’s field goal that cut Notre Dame’s deficit to 10-3. The Fighting Irish ended up winning 27-24 to advance to the national title game, where they lost to Ohio State.
Still, after evaluating his quarterback options this spring, Freeman made it clear that he preferred having the two young quarterbacks battle for the position rather than having them split time with Angeli, who still could become the starting quarterback at Syracuse. Notre Dame hosts Syracuse on Nov, 22 in the second-to-last regular season game.
“The thing you can create when you have a competition, a true competition where it’s 50-50, you guys are going to battle it out, is you try to put some of that pressure that a real game presents,” Freeman said. “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 as we begin fall camp.”
It is a change for Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish had veteran transfers in three of the past four years in Jack Coan, who arrived in 2021 after three years at Wisconsin and led ND to a 11-2 record; Sam Hartman, who took over in 2023 after five years at Wake Forest and helped the Fighting Irish finish 10-3; and Leonard, who started last year after three years at Duke and led Notre Dame to the national title game.
Although the transfer portal route has worked out well, Notre Dame should benefit from having continuity at quarterback for at least the next two seasons because either Carr or Minchey project as multi-year starters. Whoever wins the job will face a difficult challenge in their first two starts. The Fighting Irish open the season at Miami on Aug. 31 and then have a week off before hosting Texas A&M on Sept. 13.
Still, the Fighting Irish should be able to compete against those teams. They return numerous players from last season, including five offensive linemen who started games and arguably the nation’s top running back in Jeremiyah Love. They will likely be ranked in the top 10 of the preseason polls and in contention for another College Football Playoff berth. Still, Freeman understands it’s a long season. He referenced a stunning loss to Northern Illinois in the second game of last season, after which Notre Dame won 13 consecutive games.
“When you talk about this team being a really good football team, we definitely have the ability to do that,” Freeman said. “We’ve just got to continue to develop, and we’ll see what the outcomes are. If you would’ve asked me after Week 2 last year, ‘What’s the outlook of this season?,’ I would’ve gone, ‘Whoof. I’m just trying to get ready for Week 3.’ We’ll let the outcomes kind of happen when we get to the season, but I do believe we have a high ceiling. We’ve just got to continue to elevate to reaching that level we aspire to reach.”
