SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman’s admission Monday that the Notre Dame football program will go back to the transfer portal for the third time in four cycles was more confirmation than a revelation.
And, he insisted during his weekly Monday press conference, that his decision to later, rinse, repeat heading into his third offseason as ND’s head football coach was in no way a negative reflection on sophomore Steve Angeli and freshman Kenny Minchey, ND’s current second and third options, respectively, on the QB depth chart and the only ones on scholarship with eligibility to return in 2024.
“I have a lot of confidence in both of them,” said Freeman, who will add incoming freshman CJ Carr next month on National Signing Day and get him as an early enrollee in January. “Steve Angeli’s done a great job. Even both bye weeks and that time he had [off the bench on Oct. 28] versus Pitt, he’s performed at a high level.
“As I told Steve and Kenny, who’s done a really good job in practice, we owe it to this program to try to put four quarterbacks on scholarship. That’s the number we have allotted for. We have three right now. But we’ve had, since I’ve become a head coach and before it, the number being four. If somebody transfers, then all of a sudden you’re down to three.
“But we want to try to always have four guys on scholarship. That has nothing to do with my beliefs in Steve Angeli and Kenny Minchey. Both of those guys are extremely talented, and I can see being the leader of our program as we move forward.”
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No. 20 Notre Dame’s outgoing starting QB, sixth-year grad Sam Hartman, faces his former team, Wake Forest (4-6), on Saturday, currently sporting the nation’s 25th-best pass-efficiency rating (154.4) and sixth-best in school history. That even after struggling in a 31-23 road loss at Clemson on Nov. 7 in which he fashioned a 70.9 rating, the second-worst of his career and the worst since a 20-7 loss to Clemson his freshman year at Wake Forest, in 2018.
That’s the same Clemson squad that dominated Notre Dame, 30-3, in the national semis, then did the same to top-ranked Alabama in the title game, by a 44-16 count.
“The thing you love about Sam is that he takes ownership of everything,” Freeman said. “He’s not passing blame. But as the head coach, you look and you watch and evaluate. It’s an accumulation of we have to protect Sam Hartman better. We have to be precise in exact route details that we have.
“Sam has to make better decisions, as he’ll be the first to tell you. It’s not just one thing. Obviously, that’s a talented defense we went against. They did a good job. But we expect to be better, and we expect to perform better running and passing the ball. That’s what we’ve been working at.”
Hartman will be one of 31 “seniors” honored on Senior Day Saturday (3:30 p.m. EST; NBC/Peacock) in the 500th game in Notre Dame Stadium history, but one of only seven with expiring eligibility. The others are wide receiver Matt Salerno, nickel Thomas Harper, safety DJ Brown, defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste, kicker Spencer Shrader and long snapper Michael Vinson.
Everyone else, and some true underclassmen as well, have decisions to make about where they’ll spend 2024. Freeman met with the pseudo-seniors during the bye week and provided information about their NFL scouting grades along with the coaching staff’s vision of how they may — or may not — fit next season.
“As I told those guys, they should go out for Senior Day, because no decisions had been made on their parts,” Freeman said. “So, they don't know if this is their last game or not, they should run out there on Senior Day. But that doesn't mean they don't have the option to come back next year.”
Angeli was the only scholarship quarterback from the 2022 roster who returned for 2023 after Freeman shared the news the Irish were going to pursue a portal QB, who turned out to be Hartman.
Ten-game starter Drew Pyne hit the portal last December and landed at Arizona State. Three-game starter Tyler Buchner bolted after spring practice and landed at Alabama. Fourth-stringer Ron Powlus III medically retired just ahead of the start of spring practice.
Angeli has amassed 54 snaps over five games in relief duty this season. He’s completed 16 of 21 passes for 236 yards and three TDs with no interceptions. Minchey has completed both of his pass attempts for 12 yards while playing seven snaps.
Jack Coan is Notre Dame’s only other modern-day transfer quarterback. He fashioned a 151.8 pass-efficiency rating in a time-share approach with Buchner in 2021. The Irish, in Brian Kelly’s final season as head coach, finished 11-2.
The transfer portal opens this offseason on Dec. 4 and closes Jan. 2. But Notre Dame is already perusing possible options.
“Our recruiting and scouting staff is always evaluating guys. ‘Hey, this guy might be a guy that enters the portal and [is] looking for another opportunity,” Freeman explained. “‘If it happens, how much interest would we have?’ But it's really hard until they actually get to the portal. We can't wait until somebody gets into the portal to have an evaluation on him.
“But we’ve got to make sure that this guy actually does get into the portal and then we say, ‘OK, here's our evaluation on that guy that we’ve been looking at.’ We then say, ‘Let's go get him or not.’”
Shifting bye-week priorities
It’s usually not a one-size-fits-all approach to bye weeks, and other than using a chunk for recruiting, Notre Dame’s second bye week of this season didn’t share much of the same priorities as the first, that came after eight games had been logged.
Rest for the players and getting a look at some of the younger players took precedence in bye week 1. The Irish followed it with a 58-7 demolition of Pitt.
This time more self-scouting, more messaging regarding offense, defense and special teams took place.
Defensively, the emphasis was on tackling for the nation’s No. 7 unit in total defense. For special teams, it was improving the punting game, both when the Irish are punting and returning punts. Notre Dame stands 94th out of 130 FBS teams in punt coverage and 84th in net punting.
The Irish are 26th in punt returns, but Chris Tyree muffed a punt on Nov. 7 at Clemson that helped put the Irish in an early hole.
The longest to-do-list came on offense, where the Irish rank 44th in total offense after starting the season on a record-setting pace over the first four games.
“Offensively, I challenged the ability to — we have to find ways to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers,” Freeman said. “We have to continue to be creative in how we do that. We also in the pass game have to be able to take some of the easy throws that defenses give us and not always look for that home run or the contested ball. Let’s take what defenses are giving us.
“I thought we established the run game really well early in the game [against Clemson], but they made some adjustments, and we have to be able to really block different stunts, different pressures and movements by the defense and still have success.
“Like, sustain our blocks longer. We have to be able to do that offensively. They know it. We can’t be status quo. We have to have a better performance on Saturday. We know that. They all want that. It’s one thing to want something. It’s another to do it. We have to put the work in to get the performance we want.”
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