Marcus Freeman updates Notre Dame's plan for future at quarterback

It’s almost portal season, and college football coaches across the country are queuing up their quarterback list and checking it twice in the hopes of adding the missing piece to their program.

Sam Hartman, the No. 1 quarterback in the transfer portal during last year’s cycle was Marcus Freeman’s New Year’s gift last season — but is he going to strike gold twice? According to Freeman, Notre Dame will again be looking toward the portal for at least one more quarterback this offseason.

“We will look to add a fourth quarterback on scholarship,” Freeman said earlier this week. “Who that is, is still to be determined. How we get to that fourth scholarship quarterback is still to be determined. We will look into the portal when the portal opens. We’ll look at different ways to fill that fourth quarterback scholarship. But yeah, we do want to be in a position to have four quarterbacks on scholarship.”

The transfer portal is officially open on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023 and will run through Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024 before briefly opening back up for a two-week window between Tuesday, April 16, 2024 and Tuesday, April 30, 2024. That gives Freeman a solid six weeks to convince at least one capable quarterback to play for Notre Dame.

In reality, it won’t be that difficult to lure a talented quarterback to South Bend. But at the same time — is it farfetched to think Notre Dame could look in-house for their next starting quarterback?

Four-star true freshman Kenny Minchey has a promising future as a former top-15 quarterback prospect this past cycle. Steve Angeli, a former three-star prospect, has the most experience out of Hartman’s backups this season, throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns so far this season.

Still, Hartman has set the blueprint for what it could look like for a top talent at quarterback to transfer into a blue-chip program like Notre Dame. He’s nearly eclipsed 2,272 yards, thrown for 18 touchdowns (and seven interceptions) and has the Irish on track to squeeze out 10 wins this season if Notre Dame wins out, including the bowl game.

Consecutive matchups against Wake Forest and Stanford, who have seven wins combined this season, will see the Irish as heavy favorites heading into each matchup. Given the Irish’ likely advantage in these matchups, it’s not farfetched to say that Hartman couldn’t finish the season with over 3,000 yards passing.

Notre Dame’s success, and in particular Sam Hartman’s success, over the final weeks of the season has the potential to play a factor in the level of quarterback that would decide to commit to the Irish when the portal is closed and Notre Dame’s roster is set in stone.