Marcus Freeman addresses whether he considered adding backup quarterback from transfer portal

This offseason, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman made a splash by landing Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman. However, the Irish also lost their two primary quarterbacks from 2022, Tyler Buchner and Drew Pyne, leading to questions about the backup quarterback situation.

As Freeman explained, he and his staff felt it would be better to develop players Notre Dame already has than to add from the portal.

“We had long discussions about that, myself, Coach [Gerad] Parker, Coach [Gino] Guidugli, and we came to the decision that we would rather invest those reps in Steve Angeli and Kenny Minchey,” Marcus Freeman said. “And we believe that they’ll develop to be exactly what we want as backups as we go into the season than to go and find somebody out of the transfer portal. We felt like we’re going to invest in those guys who have been here, and we think their upside is tremendous.”

Steve Angeli was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2022, according to the On3 Industry Rankings. He became Notre Dame’s backup in 2022 following Tyler Buchner’s injury. However, he did not throw a pass for the Irish. For his part, Kenny Minchey was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2023 who the Irish are excited about but is very young still.

Marcus Freeman emphasized that he thinks that both Angeli and Minchey have the potential to lead Notre Dame at quarterback in the future. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t invest those practice reps in them.

“Yeah, if we didn’t [think Angeli was the future], we would have got a transfer portal quarterback, right, and that’s the conversation we had. We believe Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey, both of those guys can be the future of Notre Dame football at the quarterback position,” Freeman said.

“And, I’ve seen a couple things out of Steve as he’s continuously, constantly hanging out with Sam Hartman and really learning the habits that Sam has as a starting quarterback, as an elite quarterback, and so I think that’s helping Steve. But, also, last year if you think about it, it was game two. He’s going from being a third scout, he was on scout team being a third-string quarterback to you’re thrust into being one play away. Well, he knows he’s one play away now and I think his mindset is different from last year to where it is now. So, I’ve seen him continuously improve and I look forward to seeing what he does the rest of camp.”

Marcus Freeman on facing talented quarterbacks

This season, Notre Dame is going to have to face several elite quarterbacks. However, Marcus Freeman knows that his team has done that before.

“We faced some extremely talented quarterbacks last year and you know, that’s going to be every year with our schedule. We’re going to play some of the best teams in the country, the best quarterbacks in the country, and we look forward to those challenges,” Freeman said.

“Obviously, I’m a little bit biased, but you know, I feel like we have a special quarterback that’s gonna lead us to, you know, great heights. And as I’ve told him, his job isn’t to lead us to win every game we play. It’s just to help us reach our full potential. And part of that is making his teammates better. Part of that is through his experience, making sure everybody knows that this is the expectation and standard for our Notre Dame offense. And so I’m excited to have the one we have and looking forward to competition we face this year.”