Freeman, Bowden Talk Blake Hebert & Notre Dame QBs
While much of the discussion on Wednesday revolved around the high school prospects his team was adding with the opening of the Early Signing Period, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was pretty definitive about who would not be joining the program.
“We have no plans on going to the transfer portal for a quarterback,” Freeman said.
General manager Chad Bowden echoed those comments.
“We feel great about the quarterback room,” said Bowden. “We feel great about going into next season with what we have. I really believe in the guys that we have recruited, and that's really all I have to say about that.”
Freeman said he feels “really strong” about Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr, the quarterbacks who will be battling to replace Riley Leonard in 2025.
“All possess different talents,” he said. “All do things well. All have areas of improvement, like we all do.”
Blake Hebert is the newest member of Gino Guidugli’s room after the Massachusetts quarterback signed on Wednesday. .
“A guy that presents almost a dual-threat, a guy that can extend plays with his legs, has a really good arm,” Freeman said of the Brunswick School standout. “What I love most about Blake in really the short time in being able to get to know each other is his competitive spirit, his leadership.
“You don't have to be in a room long with him to understand the leadership values that I believe quarterbacks must have, and he definitely possesses that leadership and competitive spirit that we look for.”
Bowden saw the same thing.
“He lights up the room,” said Bowden. “There's something about that kid that you just see it -- you can see it on the field. You can see it with his teammates. They just light up when they're around him. They love it. They love playing for him. That's what really attracted us to Blake.”
Hebert transferred to Brunswick for his senior season, where he joined offensive lineman Matty Augustine and safety Ethan Long, who were both already committed to the Irish. Augustine and Long recognized that leadership immediately and were fine allowing somebody to come in from the outside and lead a program with an already established culture.
Hebert was committed to Clemson at the time, but they also got in his ear about Notre Dame. And when it became clear the Irish would have a void at quarterback during the fall, Brunswick alum and Notre Dame Director of Athletics Pete Bevacqua was also able to offer insight.
“I think being at that school kind of helped him understand that there's more to life than just football, and I think that played a big part in his interest in the University of Notre Dame when it came down the stretch,” said Bowden.
Still, while Freeman feels good about the future of the quarterback position, which currently includes four scholarship players, he also understands the transfer portal is a reality and consistently keeping four scholarship signal-callers in the program will be “difficult.”
“You can only play one,” he said. “But as you see right now, we have four quarterbacks on scholarship in our room that all want to be here. That's important, and it's a reflection of Coach Guidugli and Coach (Mike) Denbrock and what they've really done with that quarterbacks room.”
Freeman said the program will try to take a quarterback every recruiting cycle with the aim of having four rostered every year.
“But you also understand that at any moment somebody can go into the transfer portal, so at least you would have three. That's something that we in previous years and this year in continuing moving forward unless things change, we want to continue to do, take a quarterback.”
A high school quarterback…Because as it stands now, the Irish are happy with the immediate and long-term outlook of the position in their program.
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