Notre Dame Will Be Shopping For A Transfer Portal Quarterback

Irish head coach Marcus Freeman plans to add a transfer quarterback to the roster for the second straight year
Notre Dame Will Be Shopping For A Transfer Portal Quarterback
Notre Dame Will Be Shopping For A Transfer Portal Quarterback /

Notre Dame has shopped down this aisle before. The Fighting Irish have brought in quarterbacks via the transfer portal twice in the last three years and head coach Marcus Freeman confirmed on Monday that he plans to add another one this offseason.

"We will look to add a fourth quarterback on scholarship,” Freeman said on Monday. "Who that is, is still to be determined. How we get to that fourth scholarship quarterback is still to be determined and we’ll look in the portal. When the portal opens, we’ll look at different ways to fill that fourth quarterback scholarship. But yeah, we do want to be in a position to have four quarterbacks on scholarship.”

The Irish brought in Jack Coan from Wisconsin prior to the 2021 season. That team finished the regular season 11-1 and played in the Fiesta Bowl. They stood pat in Freeman’s first season, 2022, with Tyler Buchner, Drew Pyne and Steve Angeli on scholarship.

Buchner and Pyne both transferred this offseason after Sam Hartman joined the team last January as a graduate transfer from Wake Forest. Pyne left in December when he was told a transfer was coming and Buchner left after competing for the job with Hartman during spring practice.

Hartman’s eligibility will be exhausted after this season. That leaves incoming freshman CJ Carr and Angeli going into his junior year along with sophomore to be Kenny Minchey on the roster.

"I have a lot of confidence in both of them,” Freeman said of his two returning quarterbacks. "Steve Angeli’s done a great job. Both bye weeks and that time he played versus Pitt, he’s performed at a high level and as I’ve told Steve and Kenny, who’s done a really good job in practice, that we owe it to this program to try to put four quarterbacks on scholarship. That’s the number we have allotted for. 

"Now, we have three right now, but we’ve had, since I became a head coach and before it, the number being four," continued Freeman. "If somebody transfers and then all of the sudden, you’re down to three, you’re down to three. But we want to try to always have four guys on scholarship. But that has nothing to do with my beliefs in Steve Angeli and Kenny Minchey. Both of those guys are extremely talented, and I can see being the leader of our program moving forward.”

While the transfer portal does not officially open until next month, the advance scouting is already underway for players who may end up on Notre Dame’s radar this offseason.

"I think we’re always aware of the portal,” Freeman said. "We’re unique in terms of the guys we can truly get from the portal to Notre Dame. So, you’re always aware of those guys that could be graduates or the guys that are first year guys. So, we’re always evaluating guys that we think (our scouting staff) ‘Hey this guy might be a guy that enters the portal and looking for another opportunity. If it happens, how much interest would we have.’ But it’s really hard until they actually get into the portal. We can’t wait until somebody gets into the portal to have an evaluation on them. But we’ve got to make sure that hey, this guy actually does get in the portal and then we say ‘Okay, here’s our evaluation on that guy that we’ve been looking at and then say hey, let’s go get him or not’.”

The transfer portal is open in two different windows this offseason. The first is from Dec. 4-Jan. 2. The spring window is open from April 16-30.

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Sean Stires
SEAN STIRES

Sean Stires is a staff writer for Irish Breakdown, where he covers the Notre Dame Football beat. A long-time radio host at WSBT, Sean is also the host of the IB Nation Sports Talk Show on the Irish Breakdown channel. He is also the play-by-play announcer for the Notre Dame women's basketball team. Sean has also called games for the Fighting Irish baseball team. You can email Sean at seanstires@gmail.com. Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more. BECOME A MEMBER Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time! Follow Ryan on Twitter: @SeanStiresLike and follow Irish Breakdown on FacebookSubscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channelSubscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter