Entering the 2025 campaign, Notre Dame boasts one of its deepest and most talented rosters in years under head coach Marcus Freeman.
The biggest question mark looms over the quarterback position. Neither CJ Carr nor Kenny Minchey has taken a meaningful snap under game pressure, which is an uncertainty that could define the season.
But that’s where Freeman comes into play.
The Ohio native enters his fourth season as the head coach for the Irish, and with that comes a wealth of experience Freeman has banked, including a run to the national title game last year.
”Where am I better?” stated Freeman. “The experience in every situation that has to do with being a head coach. The experience with dealing with you guys, the experience with dealing with making high-pressure situation decisions, the experience of two-minute situations, and the experience of recruiting. I'm better at every area of being a head coach because of experience where there's no substitution for it and that's what I have to continue.”
Freeman’s hunger to bring a national championship to South Bend has only intensified since coming so close in January. The setbacks along the way, like losses to Marshall, Northern Illinois, and three defeats to Ohio State, have shaped both him and the program.
“I can't say just this one thing is where I see a significant difference,” explained Freeman. “I hope it's in every aspect. If you have a camera on me or you're in my brain 24 hours a day, ‘Oh, he's better here.’ Why? Because he's done it. He's experienced, he's more confident in it. He's been there.’
“There's just not one area where I can point out and say, I'm better here than every other place. I hope I’m better in every area and every aspect of being a head coach.”
The quarterback competition between Carr and Minchey is an aspect where Freeman will be better.
Freeman was candid in reflecting on his early missteps during his first year as head coach, specifically during the quarterback competition between Tyler Buchner and Drew Pyne.
“I think going into that quarterback competition, my opinion and how we truly had that competition was slighted one way,” Freeman said. “That was just based on the things I was hearing and I saw going into fall camp. It was slated as slightly towards Buchner, 'Hey, we expect you to win this competition.'”
Now, it’s not that Buchner wasn’t the best option for what Notre Dame wanted to do, but Freeman knows he needs to be open-minded to all options, especially considering the talents of Carr and Minchey.
"What I've learned from that is you don't ever go into a competition expecting somebody to win it,” explained Freeman. “We will evaluate your performance and that's what we'll do, right? We're truly gonna evaluate both of those guys' performance. We'll make sure it's fair in terms of the reps and the situations they get.
"You have to base it on what you see and what you evaluate and not what you want to see happen.”
Fall camp will be intense for both quarterbacks. The lack of experience can’t be fixed, but both have a year in Mike Denbrock’s offense, which is something Sam Hartman and Riley Leonard didn’t have as graduate transfers, which meant they had to learn a playbook and teammates on the fly.
"I think they're at an advantage in terms of understanding the offensive system because they've heard it for a year and a half now,” Freeman stated. “They practice with Mike Denbrock, so Coach Denbrock knows what they do well, what they like, and what they don't like. They're lacking the in-game experience.”
To close the gap of inexperience, Freeman and his staff are focused on replicating high-pressure situations in fall camp and moments that push both players beyond their comfort zone.
“How do we find ways in fall camp to put them in as many high-pressure situations as we can,” Freeman said. “There are many different examples that I can think of for high-pressure situations. One of them is to say, 'Hey, you know that you're going to be taken out if you don't execute.' That's a stinky situation, but it's high pressure, right?
“What we've got to do is put them in as many of those situations, to get them to execute before we go and play down in Florida. That will be one of the ultimate challenges. In-game experience is a high-pressure experience. Let's create that in practice."
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