Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM JUNE/JULY 2024 21 If you ask another Notre Dame fan, he might say sophomore Kenny Minchey. How can you look past coaches and teammates calling him a "gunslinger"? Not to mention the fact he was credited with 6 rushing attempts for 40 yards and 1 touchdown, while also connecting on 12 of 19 passes for 123 yards and 1 TD. The Fighting Irish have needed a little of that in their lives for a long while. If you ask a third Notre Dame fan, he might say freshman CJ Carr. Did you see what the early enrollee did in the Blue-Gold Game playing for both sides (15-of-23 passing for 165 yards with 1 touchdown)? How can you look past that? The takeaway is for the first time in recent memory the Irish could have four quarterbacks who could go out and get a win on any given Saturday. Of course, it's important to not get too far out over the skis. Leonard has only ever played at Duke where ex- pectations are much, much lower than they are at Notre Dame. Angeli has only ever started one game, and it was the Sun Bowl against an Oregon State team missing a plethora of impact players. Minchey has only attempted 2 passes in his career. Carr has never seen the field in a real game at the col- legiate level. If you're pumping the brakes on the quarterback optimism that's sweeping through South Bend then you're play- ing your cards right. But if you're not at least a little excited that the Irish might have something special in this quartet then you're not seeing it for what it is — a group with immense upside that, if all goes to plan, is going to have this program set up nicely at the most im- portant position in the sport for years to come. No matter who gets the starting nod, Notre Dame has four quarterbacks competing to perform on the big stage in the fall. "There's patience, but there's always a push," Angeli said. "It goes both ways. You're not waiting around. You're still trying to get better and improve yourself every day." PICK YOUR POISON The situation Notre Dame has at run- ning back is actually eerily similar to that of the quarterbacks. Only at this spot, you can play more than one. And the Fighting Irish are so much better for that. It'd be super surprising to see any of Notre Dame's tailbacks go over 200 carries like Audric Estimé did last year. That means more opportunities for all of them. Sophomore Jeremiyah Love and ju- nior Jadarian Price are projected to take most of those, but there will be leftovers for junior Gi'Bran Payne and possibly even some pieces of the pie for freshmen Aneyas Williams and Kedren Young. Even with Estimé serving as a true RB1, all five of Notre Dame's scholarship running backs scored at least one offen- sive touchdown in 2023. That included Penn State transfer Devyn Ford, who moved to safety for the 2024 campaign because there are just so many mouths to feed in position coach Deland Mc- Cullough's room. McCullough makes it known, how- ever, that Ford's transition says more about Ford and his willingness to help Notre Dame in another way than it does about the way McCullough operates his unit. "Under me, what's a lead back?" Mc- Cullough said. "All the guys continue to play." If "lead back" was a term in the dic- tionary with pictures to supplement the definition, a photo of Love — who finished the Blue-Gold Game with 7 rushes for 36 yards and the 1 score, plus had 5 receptions for 41 yards — would make sense. Or Price. Or even Payne. We could come to find out Williams and Young are top tailback material, too. Williams shined in the Blue-Gold Game, scoring a touchdown on a 7-yard run that evoked similarities to a recent Notre Dame running back who shared the same name. Recalling Kyren Williams, the current Los Angeles Rams starter, and not hav- ing to go far into the memory bank to re- count what Estimé did with his chances last fall just goes to show where Notre Dame has been with its running backs lately and where it's going. To the moon, as the kids say. "That's the type of environment we're in and that's the standard that we have for our running backs here," Mc- Cullough said. WAIT AND SEE The Notre Dame offensive line is far from a finished product. Just like in 2023, there could be changes made to the projected starting five between the end of spring ball and the completion of fall camp. A year ago, Billy Schrauth and Andrew Kristofic held down the starting guard spots. Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler wrestled them away in time for the sea- son opener Aug. 26 against Navy in Ire- land. This year, all eyes are on right tackle. Will it be graduate student Tosh Baker or will it be junior Aamil Wagner? Baker has the experience upside but even then he does not have a whole lot of it. He's started four games in the last three sea- sons. Still, that's four more than Wag- ner, who looked steadier in his duties in the Blue-Gold Game. Baker had moments that left you wondering, "This guy is going into his fifth season at this level?" The answer is obviously yes, and it's been made possible by his sheer size. He's 6-8, 321 pounds. Wagner is 6-6, 292. The fear with Wagner is he's not big enough to hold up against col- lege defensive ends over the course of four quarters. There are going to be moments he gets punked by them Junior quarterback Steve Angeli had a good spring, but he's being pushed by the younger signal-callers on Notre Dame's roster. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER