Marcus Freeman made it clear almost from day one, that he’s not naming a starting quarterback until fall camp. Even with Steve Angeli dropping out of the race, he still has been pretty opaque when it comes to who might be the leader between Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr. But he did recently shed at least a little light on his thinking with practice kicking off next month.
Freeman sat down to talk about the quarterback race - a competition that people outside of South Bend are also paying attention to - to Greg McElroy over the weekend and in the process, he also made it clear that picking a winner won’t be easy. The loser might also see some time on the field in 2025 too.
Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr enter fall camp duel as Freeman weighs a the quarterback battle
We have two guys that we're really battling with CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey, and both did some really good things, right? Both, as you evaluate the quarterback position, have an extremely high ceiling,” the Notre Dame football head coach said. “They both do things really, really well, and they do them differently.”
“Our job is to say who's going to give us the best chance to win as we get ready to face an opponent. And those questions will be answered by the quarterbacks during fall camp. I love it because I love a competition.”
Freeman also made it clear that the competition has officially entered a new phase. Spring practice was a kind of warmup while the fall is where it’s more winner take all. Of course, he might not really be taking “all” if Freeman’s plan comes to fruition.
“So right now, you can add a little bit of pressure through competition to see who can perform under those high-pressure situations … you're going to look for any way to help your team. And if that means you use two quarterbacks for certain situations, then you're going to find a way to use two quarterbacks.”
Freeman still tried to hide exactly what he meant with those comments, making it clear the Irish might be less traditional in how they work things.
“That might be two quarterbacks on the field at the same time. Who knows? I'm looking forward to an extremely challenging and high-pressure fall camp.”
Notre Dame football fans have their favorites. The most interesting part of the fight is just how different the profiles of each quarterback is. The race is an especially intriguing one because CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey’s strengths are so different.