3 Big Questions | Notre Dame Quarterbacks

Halfway through the spring, it looked like Notre Dame might still have a quarterback battle to figure out in the summer.

Tyler Buchner was right there competing with Sam Hartman. He was better than him when the media had an opportunity to view practice. Even if everything headed into the spring suggested it should be Hartman’s job, the coaching staff couldn’t name him the starter if he didn’t come in and earn it.

Fortunately, they don't have to deal with that any longer. Hartman had a strong scrimmage performance before the final week of spring ball. He then followed that up by looking like the superior player in the Blue-Gold game. Shortly after that, Buchner entered the transfer portal and no decision had to be made because it was made for them.

Even if this now opens up some questions about depth, having their QB1 question answered makes things much easier for the team. The staff can build around Hartman and the players know he is now “the man”. That makes everything better from summer workouts to figuring out reps in camp.

Now things flip to just how good the offense can be and who will be next in line at the position. That’s the main thing that needs to be determined during camp. We could end up learning a lot about the present and future of the the quarterback position at Notre Dame for the present during the next six weeks.

Will Sam Hartman look as dialed in as he looked in the spring game?

Overreacting to a spring game is something no one should do when evaluating players. No one should expect Sam Hartman to have a lot of days where he is completing 81.2% of his throws for 11.8 yards per attempt. The best way to look at it is to recognize that it’s just one practice.

(But he was fantastic in that practice)

The other way to look at it is that he clearly found a comfort level that he didn’t have earlier in the spring. He looked like the version of Hartman that was one of the top quarterbacks in the country the last two seasons. That’s exactly what Notre Dame fans were hoping to see.

It’s unrealistic to expect he’ll be that on point like that every day in camp, but if he’s looking as dialed in and confident within the offense as we saw during the Blue-Gold game, then people should be very excited about what he will do this fall.

Who will be the backup?

It’s a two-man race between redshirt freshman Steve Angeli and true freshman Kenny Minchey.

Angeli has the benefit of a year already being in the system and that should give him a leg up on Minchey, who has been on campus since January. The one with more experience in the system doesn’t always end up winning the backup job, though. The most recent example was Drew Pyne as a freshman in 2020. He ended up beating out Brendon Clark.

Flip that to the next season and Pyne was the number two after camp, but Buchner was the one they rolled with when they needed to make a change during the Virginia Tech game. Who the next man up is can be fluid and these players will have to keep competing all season.

Angeli won’t simply be handed the job, but quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli had a lot of praise for him in the spring.

"Steve Angeli has had a phenomenal spring camp. His decision-making has been great. His ball placement has been great. We have to find a way to get him more reps and continue to develop Steve. I think Steve has a shot to be a really good quarterback as well. I'm not in here just hyping everybody up, but I think all three of those guys are having a great camp. Enjoy Steve and he's getting better every day."

Those quotes are a better reflection of Angeli than his performance in limited reps behind a makeshift offensive line during the spring game. No one should judge Kenny Minchey harshly based on the spring game either for the same reasons.

Like most early enrollees, Minchey was trying to digest the playbook while getting settled in his first semester at school. We’ll see if he has taken a big step mentally from then to now when the Irish take to the practice field at the end of this month. We heard he made plenty of strides during spring, including a very good performance in the closed scrimmage inside Notre Dame Stadium.

With the highly rated CJ Carr‍ likely to arrive in January, the pressure is on both of these players to have a strong camp and establish themselves as the next best option at quarterback if the moment arises during the season. They’ll be evaluated every day and the one who can help the Irish win now if called upon will ultimately be the guy.

Will one of them prove that they can run the offense at a level comparable to Hartman?

This may be difficult to assess if they aren’t getting many reps with the ones, but it’s something every head coach would love to know heading into a season because most seasons require the use of a backup quarterback to win games. In four of the last six seasons, Notre Dame has had a backup quarterback play significant snaps.

Ian Book was the man who led them to a Citrus Bowl victory against LSU in 2017. They made the switch to him after three games during the 2018 season, then had to lean on Brandon Wimbush to step back in against Florida State.

In 2021 they needed Pyne to play the role of hero off the bench against Wisconsin and went to Buchner when they needed a spark against Virginia Tech. Then last year they had no choice but to roll with Pyne after Buhcner was lost for the regular season against Marshall.

Pyne never proved to be more than a backup when given a greater opportunity last season, which is why he’s now at Arizona State. Buchner might have been an overqualified backup this season, which is also why he’s now trying to become the starter at Alabama.

Someone will win the backup job behind Hartman, but can either Angeli or Minchey look like they are the next Book or DeShone Kizer? Both of them were set as the number two and were projected to likely to get jumped on the depth chart by a younger player before they even played a snap at Notre Dame. They showed signs of being better than that in camp before proving they were starting caliber quarterbacks when they got their shot to play.

There may be a situation where Notre Dame has to play Angeli or Minchey this season. Irish fans will want to know if they are players that can win games if they have to play. Making plays against the number one defense is one way to show that either of them would be capable of getting the job done when their number is called.

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