Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM PRESEASON 2025 19 does the concept of a situational/package quarter- back make sense for No. 2? And if it does, practicing that needs to — prefer- ably clandestinely — be part of camp sessions. That's not going to be a concept Freeman or Denbrock are likely to give much more than a word salad to unless and until they actually debut it in a game as a surprise. For the record, it has not been Denbrock's prefer- ence or practice to do the change-up quarterback thing, even though Brian Kelly had dabbled with the concept a couple of times during his run at Notre Dame. Tyler Buchner was one of those tag team-style quarterbacks, back during his freshman year, in 2021, when Jack Coan was the starter. And now Buchner is back at quarterback after last year's No. 2 signal-caller, Steve Angeli, hit the transfer portal post-spring practice (landing at Syracuse). The 2022 opening-night starting quarterback for Notre Dame is again wearing a red quarterback jersey in practice, albeit No. 10 now — his fourth college uniform number. And nowhere near the conversation about who should open up as the starting quarterback option this season, but not irrelevant either. "Yeah, I think for 'Buck,' it's just great to see him with a smile on his face instead of doing catch drills on the side with Coach [Mike] Brown," Denbrock said of Buchner's role on the team last season as a walk-on wide receiver, when he wore No. 26. Freshman quarterback Blake Hebert now wears the No. 12 that Buchner donned in his freshman and sophomore years at Notre Dame, before trans- ferring to Alabama for the 2023 season and wear- ing No. 8 as a backup quarterback. There, he made one start, early in the season then dropped quickly down the depth chart, even more as that season progressed. "He's kind of back in his element," Denbrock con- tinued of Buchner. "So, that's been fun to watch. But I think for both of those guys — for Blake and for Buck — getting in a position where they are absolutely, undoubtedly fighting out for who's go- ing to be maybe that third guy. "And good Lord willing, you never get to a situa- tion like that. But if something did happen to the starter who we end up naming, they'd be one play away from getting in the game — if somebody got nicked up — and playing." Buchner wasn't just a walk-on wide receiver in his return to Notre Dame. He's played two seasons of lacrosse (wearing No. 12) and helped the Irish win a national title in that sport in the spring of 2024. For the 2024 Irish football team he was a valuable scout-team quarterback in practices for triple-option-leaning Army and Navy last season. He also was valuable on special teams, primarily on fakes — a converted fake field goal via the run against Georgia Tech and a converted fake punt via the pass against Southern Cal. "I think it's getting him comfortable again, and shaking some of the rust off," Denbrock said of Buchner. "And then for Blake, just continuing to grow and learn and being not afraid to kind of pull the trigger and put his nose in the fan a little bit." 3. Making The Most Out Of Love And The Running Backs Jeremiyah Love averaged 10 carries a game in 2024. Full stop. That wasn't because of injury. It was because of former running backs coach Deland McCullough's commitment to going deep in the running backs rotation combined with Riley Leonard being a pro- lific running quarterback. The formula largely worked, but it did have a drawback. There were times when McCullough was so committed to using a certain back for a cer- tain job, that Love in 2024 was on the sideline dur- ing a game's inflection point and the same thing too often with Audric Estimé in 2023 — think back to Notre Dame's final offensive drive in the home loss to Ohio State, for instance. New running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider likes to flex his depth as well, but he did it a little bit differently at Penn State and will likely carry that approach to managing running back reps to Notre Dame. "You may play 60 snaps a game, but I've got to make sure my best players are in for the right 30, 40 snaps of the game," Seider said back in February, when he was hired and introduced to the media. "So, when you can take a Jeremiyah Love and get him the break that's needed to have him strong enough in that fourth quarter to go win a game like he did versus [Penn State] in the Orange Bowl. That's smart coaching." The junior Love, a popular choice on the deluge of preseason All-America teams, is at the top of the Irish rotation of six attractive running back options that may be the deepest talent pool at that position in the country. Yet Seider will prob- ably be able to find meaningful snaps for no more than four. And snaps are going to be minimal for anyone who's not adept at pass protection. "You've got to earn what you get," Seider said. "I believe that if you can go out there and show me you can pass protect on third down, because to me that's where the trust comes in. Knowing you can protect our quarterback. "Every guy in that room wants to play on Sun- days. Well, if you can't protect Pat Mahomes, you're not going to be on the field. We're always going to start off with the foundation of protec- tion. If I'm teaching you how to run, we recruited the wrong guys." How many two-back sets to use and how best to integrate the running backs into the passing game also figure high into the Denbrock to-do list when it comes to Seider's stable. 4. Setting The Wide Receiver Rotation And Beyond The summer rumblings of a top four in a rotation of returning juniors Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison and graduate transfers Malachi Fields and Junior Kenny Minchey (left) and sophomore CJ Carr entered camp battling for QB1 status with the Irish. Denbrock will need to determine whether the concept of a situational/package QB makes sense in this year's offense for whichever player ends up slotted at No. 2. PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MILLER