Spring Football Leading to Growth for Notre Dame QB Kenny Minchey
Kenny Minchey got a small taste of college football in 2023. The Tennessee native appeared in three games for the Irish and went 2-of-2 for 12 yards as a freshman.
It paved the way for this spring, which has turned into a significant opportunity for Minchey with Riley Leonard out with an ankle injury. Minchey and Steve Angeli have been promoted, which means first-team reps for both quarterbacks.
The added reps bring more competition but also a chance to develop his game with Notre Dame’s top players.
"I feel like I've definitely made improvements with non-physical stuff,” stated Minchey. “Everyone in our room can throw the ball, but it's the technical stuff at the quarterback position. I feel like pre-snap, I've gotten a lot better."
Minchey’s growth pre-snap is noteworthy with offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock empowering his quarterbacks to make checks and adjustments at the line of scrimmage.
“He gives us the ability to check out of plays, flip plays, get us to a different look if we see something different from the defense,” said Minchey. “Having more control at the line of scrimmage."
The pre-snap game is an area new to Minchey as his high school program didn’t ask him to do that and as a freshman, Notre Dame didn’t ask him to do much, but it’s starting to come together for him.
"At the beginning, we didn't do as much of that last year,” Minchey said. “But after eight practices I'm a lot better with it as far as identifying what I'm seeing on a defense and then flipping a play to get us in the best position."
Guidugli also has areas he wants to see Minchey improve in this offseason. It starts with taking care of the football and making calculated risks.
“Kenny can pass the football,” Guidugli explained. “Like at the end of the day, Kenny makes some throws—some off-balance throws, some touch throws, that every now and then you’re looking to the sideline like, ‘Wow, did y’all see that?’
“That’s the thing about Kenny; he’s a gunslinger. There’s not a window small enough that he doesn’t think he can throw the ball through. Gunslinger. He doesn’t see a pass he doesn’t like. You like that, but you kind of have to harness that.”
Yet, Guidugli doesn’t want to take that gunslinger mindset out of his quarterback either as it’s a strength of Minchey’s game.
“Kenny just has to continue to develop as a leader with a sense of urgency as he and I talk about all the time,” stated Guidguli. “From last year to now, there’s been a tremendous amount of improvement there, and he’s going to continue to improve with the more reps he gets, so I’m happy with his development now and the way he’s throwing the football and the way he’s seeing the defense.”
Denbrock’s new offense has Minchey and the rest of the offense excited as the ball will be in space and there are also more answers for the Notre Dame quarterbacks.
"There are so many different spots you can go with the ball on each play,” explained Minchey. “The biggest thing is creating explosive plays and putting the ball where the defense tells us to go with the ball, not where we decide it should go."
And when it comes to those explosive plays, Minchey has been impressed with what he’s seen from Notre Dame’s makeover in the receiver room through nine practices.
"It's great,” said Minchey. “We got some new additions from different college teams and guys coming from high school. Jayden Harrison, speed guy from Marshall, he's great. He's going to be an explosive player. Kris Mitchell, fast from FIU. Micah Gilbert, coming out of high school, he's great. He's already going with the ones a little bit.
“I feel like we got a lot of new additions who are really good, and we haven't even seen Beaux (Collins) yet. We got high hopes for him as well."
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