Even though we are over two months from seeing Notre Dame take on Miami, it feels like the season is right around the corner. It’s been a long offseason that the Fighting Irish unfortunately started off with after losing in the National Championship to Ohio State. However, it’s a new season and Notre Dame has a lot of talent coming back for 2025.
There will be a new quarterback on center as Riley Leonard was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in this past NFL Draft, but head coach Marcus Freeman has yet to decide who that will be. With Steve Angeli transferring to Syracuse, the QB1 battle will be between C.J. Carr and Kevin Minchey.
Both Carr and Minchey have not done anything at the college to prove that they should be the one under center heading into the season for the Irish. However, this is a good problem to have (right now) for the Irish. There is nothing wrong with some competition, but whoever takes over as the starting quarterback will have a major task of picking up where Notre Dame left off last season.
Notre Dame football must identify their QB1 sooner than later
Brad Crawford of CBS Sports recently listed one area of concern for the top 25 teams in the nation heading into 2025 and Crawford couldn’t be any more right about Notre Dame. Crawford is urging Notre Dame to “pick and quarterback and go”. Here is what Crawford said about the quarterback situation in Notre Dame:
"There's a reason the Fighting Irish didn't go portal shopping this offseason for another body in their quarterback room after Steve Angeli departed for Syracuse in April. It's clear Marcus Freeman isconfident he can win with C.J. Carr or Kevin Minchey at the position, and said as much throughout spring, calling it a "true competition" for the QB1 role. Notre Dame opens the season at nationally-ranked Miami on Aug. 31, so its starter needs to be identified early during camp." - Brad Crawford, CBS Sports
I get it, unless you have a clear-cut number one quarterback on the roster, competition is what brings the best out in everyone. At the same time, when you are a program like Notre Dame, quarterback should be the least of your concerns. Instead, it’s the biggest one for the Irish.
The last thing fans want to see is uncertainty at the most important position on the field especially when you have a team that is built to win it all now. Whoever wins this competition will have some big shoes to fill based on last year and has to have all of the confidence in the world going into Miami at the end of August.