Steve Angeli Gets His Chance To Showcase His Skills In The Sun Bowl

Sam Hartman's decision to opt out of the bowl game means Notre Dame is turning to sophomore Steve Angeli

Notre Dame will look quite a bit different on offense when it takes on Oregon State in the Sun Bowl, and that includes behind the center. The Fighting Irish have several players offensive players opting out for the bowl game, and that includes veteran quarterback Sam Hartman.

With Hartman out, the starting quarterback role for the bowl game now falls to sophomore Steve Angeli. The confident New Jersey native will get his chance to show he can be the future at quarterback at Notre Dame. A strong performance in the bowl game would certainly be a step towards changing my opinion of Angeli.

Angeli certainly didn't arrive at Notre Dame with the fanfare of other recent and future quarterback signees. A three-star recruit coming out of Bergen Catholic, Angeli made his first big impression on Irish fans when he led the Gold squad to a last second touchdown drive to win the Blue-Gold Game.

Angeli got his first real action this season as the backup to Hartman. His playing time was limited to mop up minutes, but Angeli impressed in those limited snaps. He threw for 130 yards and two touchdowns on 8-11 passing in the 56-3 win over Tennessee State. 

Angeli was even more impressive in the 58-7 win over Pittsburgh. In that game he passed for 92 yards on 6-7 passing, and his rolling left touchdown pass to Cooper Flanagan was one of the better passes we saw from an Irish quarterback this season. He threw his fourth touchdown pass of the season in the final minutes of the 45-7 win over Wake Forest.

The spotlight will be quite different for Angeli this go round. Instead of coming off the bench in a no pressure situation at the end of a blowout, the ability of Notre Dame winning its 10th game of the season and earning a second straight bowl victory will in part be determined by how well Angeli plays in his first career start.

If the sophomore passer struggles it will be much harder for the Irish to win, and he'll miss an opportunity to show that he should be the quarterback of the future, and not the younger more talented quarterbacks like Kenny Minchey, CJ Carr (2024 signee) or Deuce Knight (2025 commit). 

It might not be fair, but if Angeli struggles it will open up a door for Minchey and Carr to battle him for either the starting role or backup role in 2024, depending on the Irish landing a starting quarterback in the portal.

Angeli's future won't be determined by how well he plays against Oregon State, or not well, whichever is the case. But the performance will certainly be a factor, which is why this is Angeli's best opportunity yet to make a lasting impression on the Notre Dame coaches - and players - as they start thinking about how to build the 2024 and 2025 offenses.

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