Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman dropped clue on starting quarterback

Following the national championship loss to Ohio State in January, Notre Dame appeared to have a quarterback battle brewing between CJ Carr and Steve Angeli. Angeli is no longer in the mix after junior transferred to Syracuse this spring.

The race is now between freshman CJ Carr and sophomore Kenny Minchey, and it appears one name is at the top of head coach Marcus Freeman’s brain before training camp begins.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman drops QB1 clue

Pete Sampson of The Athletic detailed Freeman’s path this offseason. He’s been busy meeting with consultants. The fourth-year head coach of Notre Dame met with Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni to learn how the Eagles were able to win a Super Bowl in February after a heartbreaking loss two years prior.

Freman also met with “a group of sports analytics experts” to find out how the Irish can call a game more efficiently in 2025. The goal for Notre Dame’s offense is to make attempts on fourth down easier to achieve. Freeman is admittedly thinking about designing the offense for Minchey, which will have to be called differently than when Riley Leonard was under center.

“I wanted to be like, ‘I like your book and all those things, and thanks for the compliments, but the reason we went for it on fourth down was because of the confidence we had in getting that first down.’ ” Freeman said via The Athletic.

“And so, I sat with the offense and said, “OK, Kenny Minchey isn’t the running quarterback that Riley Leonard was — how do we create that confidence in the head coach that we can sequence things on third down, knowing that we’re going to go for it on fourth down?”

Kenny Minchey has to prove it in training camp

While Freeman stopped short of naming Minchey the starter, the six-foot-two, 219-pound quarterback was the name that came to mind as the starter during the fourth-down conversion scenario. And it’s who the analysts were thinking about designing an efficient offense for.

Minchey was a four-star prospect (14th QB overall) in the class of 2023, per 247 Sports. The native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, has completed three passes on three attempts for 16 yards in his first two seasons with Notre Dame. He’s added two carries for 12 yards and a touchdown during that span.

Carr, a redshirt freshman in 2024, has no stats.

While Minchey needs to prove he’s the best quarterback in training camp, it seems the job might be his to lose before the Irish kickoff the regular season on the road against Miami on Aug. 31 at 6:30 p.m. CST on ABC.

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