Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM PRESEASON 2025 31 tioned already, most of them are not doing so in South Bend anymore. It's impossible to hit on every signee. Some players who show up as part of a highly heralded class unpredict- ably never play a down for the school they originally signed with out of high school. Notre Dame had a few of those from the 2022 class. Still, others make major impacts be- fore deciding to continue their careers somewhere else. Notre Dame had a few of those, too. At the end of it all, college coaches know what they're getting into; they spend countless hours making pitches to get players to play for them when, in reality, nothing is ever guaranteed. Those players they pleaded with and pried from the pull of other programs' messaging are never surefire locks to accomplish everything they set out to when they picked one school out of, presumably, many other options. There isn't anything guaranteed about college football. So, next time you hear Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman harp on an "uncertain future," a catchphrase that caught fire during the Irish's run to the national championship game last sea- son, remember that his point very much applies to recruiting. As optimistic or bleak as things may be when classes are finalized, the opposite emotion could very easily pervade toward the end of those classes' time in college. Or, the emotions could land somewhere in the middle. That's actually more likely. And that's how it panned out for Notre Dame's 2022 recruiting class, now college seniors in 2025. THE QB WHO GOT AWAY Got away might not be the correct phrasing here. Maybe "the QB who never truly got started" would be better. That's wordier. But it's also more indicative of Steve Angeli's story. He really never did get fully off the ground at Notre Dame. The No. 33 quarterback recruit in the country in 2022 per the Rivals Industry Ranking, Angeli was the Irish's backup for most of his true freshman season. Tyler Buchner's injury forced Drew Pyne to start 10 times. All 10 times, An- geli was the next man up if anything would've happened to Pyne. And 12 times in 2023, Angeli was one play — or one anything — away from starting. He backed up Sam Hartman. Angeli's lone start in three seasons at Notre Dame came between being QB2 be- hind Hartman and holding the same des- ignation for 16 games a step below Riley Leonard's ladder in 2024. Leonard started all 16 games for the Irish from the season opener at Texas A&M through the national championship game against Ohio State. In Angeli's only Notre Dame start, he played nearly flawlessly in completing 15 of 19 pass attempts for 232 yards with 3 touchdown tosses and no intercep- tions while the Irish beat Oregon State 40-8 in the Sun Bowl. That performance — and every other opportunity he was given at the end of blowouts or otherwise — led many to believe Angeli could be a highly effec- tive season-long starter for the Irish. The spring 2025 season came and went without Angeli being placed above younger position mates Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr on the depth chart, though, so he transferred to Syracuse. It was an unceremonious end to a Notre Dame career that had strong potential, if a 6-of-7 passing, field-goal scoring drive at the end of the first half of the Orange Bowl was any indication of what could have come in high-leverage situations in his senior season. Instead, it's a senior season that will be spent with the Orange, not one that will start at the home of the Orange Bowl. Angeli's first regular-season start could have come at the same place he masterfully helped the Irish put points on the board to salvage what was otherwise a dud of a first half against Penn State. So much for that. He's the QB who got away. Or the one who never truly got started. "At the end of the day, Steve made the decision to transfer," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. "Or, it was probably a better opportunity for him to — nothing's guaranteed — but a bet- ter opportunity for him to be the starter in the fall." THE ONE NFL DRAFT PICK When we think of Notre Dame cor- nerbacks in the Marcus Freeman and Mike Mickens era years from now, we're going to think of Benjamin Morrison as the one who started a generational run for one program at one position. It happens all the time for other pro- grams at other positions. And even at Notre Dame at other positions. Think Troy Smith kickstarting an unreal cou- ple of decades of quarterback play at Ohio State. Or tight end Ken MacAfee laying a foundation for Notre Dame to be dubbed "TEU" decades down the line. If Notre Dame is ever called CBU, Morrison will have been a founding fa- ther of the movement. Morrison's first taste of college foot- ball came at Ohio Stadium in Notre Dame's 2022 season opener. He was a true freshman facing the best collection of wide receivers in the country — OSU is well-known for those, too — and he didn't blink. By the end of that year, he was a Freshman All-American with 6 interceptions. Only two players in the Defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka played some of the best football of his Notre Dame career when it mattered most in last season's College Football Playoff. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER