It was a busy week in the Notre Dame quarterback room, so let’s start with where it left the Irish under center.
We’ll separate it between this season and those to come.
2023 Season
- Starter: Sam Hartman (Grad)
- Backups: Steve Angeli (RS Freshman), Kenny Minchey (Freshman)
Tyler Buchner now plays for the Alabama Crimson Tide. The 11th-ranked quarterback in the Class of 2021 never fully clicked at Notre Dame, playing limited snaps behind Jack Coan his freshman year and then getting hurt in his second start his academic sophomore year. It was hard to tell how good or bad Buchner was. Part of this was the limited sample, but another part was his situation. Our source in the NFL scouting world told us last fall that it was impossible to evaluate Buchner because of just how bad Notre Dame’s 2022 receiving corps was. So, there’s that.
What we did know about Buchner was that he had great potential. That potential remains, though the likelihood of him fulfilling it appears lower than it once did. What we also know is that for this season, he is in every likelihood not as good as Sam Hartman. It’s concerning that Alabama wants him—that’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder whether you’re missing something—but Buchner is likely to be in a competition in Tuscaloosa against Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson for the starting job, and the competition was over in South Bend. That says something.
The Future
- Possible Starters: Angeli, Minchey, CJ Carr (Freshman in 2024)
The real concern regarding Buchner’s exit is where Notre Dame is left if something happens to Hartman, and where Notre Dame is left when something does happen to Hartman, that something being the exhausting of Hartman’s college eligibility at the end of this season. Hartman is a sixth-year senior. Even with the Covid year, you only get six.
At a glance, this is concern is a big one. Buchner was in the mix to start as a true freshman. Steve Angeli was not. Kenny Minchey is not. That doesn’t tell the full story, though. Angeli was the 21st-ranked quarterback in the Class of 2022. Minchey was the 14th-ranked quarterback in the Class of 2023. Carr is the 5th-ranked quarterback in the Class of 2024. That doesn’t tell the full story—each class of quarterbacks is unique—but it does tell a lot of it, and looking to the 247 recruiting ratings, Buchner was ahead of Minchey and behind Carr. It’s an oversimplification to say that Buchner’s experience is balanced out by his diminished stock since enrolling under the dome, but it’s not a grave one.
There’s also the lesson Hartman just taught us: The transfer portal can work for Notre Dame. If Marcus Freeman and Gerad Parker don’t like any of Angeli, Minchey, and Carr to be the starter next fall, they have the option to at least pursue other players. It doesn’t mean they’ll get the best QB in the portal, but the option is there to pursue whoever that guy is.
Losing Buchner to Nick Saban and Tommy Rees is scary, and it’s possible we’ll live to wish it hadn’t happened. But losing your backup quarterback who was hoped to not even be the starter by 2025 isn’t the worst thing, and it especially isn’t the worst thing with three more four-stars in the room next year.
Lacrosse Bracketology
We actually might have lacrosse bracketology on this site later this week, but don’t count on it. In its stead, here are some guesses, with the selection shows listed on the NCAA’s website as occurring this Sunday night:
On the men’s side, Notre Dame dropped to third in both RPI and the media poll after yesterday’s loss at Virginia. Duke is at the top of both, Virginia is second, Notre Dame is third, with the coaches poll yet to be released at the time this is written. Notre Dame does have one more game remaining, at bubbly UNC, while Duke only plays Merrimack on Sunday and Virginia is done.
Where does this leave Notre Dame? The assumption would be that they won’t be seeded higher than third, but it’s also fair to ask how much it even matters. It only changes the difficulty of the path through the bracket, since first-round games are the only ones at campus sites (the NCAA is listing these as “predetermined” locations in one spot, but they only have neutral sites listed for the quarterfinals, semi’s, and championship, which implies it’s still campus sites for the first round). You’d rather play worse teams, but if a national title is the goal, you do have to beat everyone eventually anyway.
On the women’s side, Notre Dame beat Virginia and lost to Boston College in the ACC Tournament, taking care of business. The new RPI isn’t out, but the Irish stayed at seventh in the poll, and they entered the week 11th in RPI, beating the 12th-ranked team before losing to the 4th-ranked team.
The women’s lacrosse tournament is bigger than the men’s one, with an extra round thrown in there because more schools have women’s lacrosse than men’s. For Notre Dame, then, the goal is to grab a top-8 seed and play a pair of home games to start things off. If the RPI’s still in the double digits come Sunday, it won’t look good for that hope, but one double-digit RPI team did earn a top-8 seed in each of the last four tournaments, so it’s possible.
Quick(er) Hitters
Going back to football, Logan Diggs entered the transfer portal after the Blue–Gold Game, leaving Notre Dame a little thinner at running back but not decimated by any stretch. Diggs probably didn’t transfer to seek a bigger stage, even if that stage does end up being bigger. Diggs transferred because he wanted more carries. Like losing Buchner, it’s not something Marcus Freeman’s staff wanted, but it doesn’t crush Notre Dame this fall. On that note: When you’re losing playing time transfers to Alabama and potentially LSU, you’re probably in a good place.
Also entering the portal was linebacker Prince Kollie, the lowest-profile departure of the recent spree but another from the Class of 2021, which, as Pete Sampson has pointed out, isn’t a great thing for a program because of what it does to depth and potential as that class continues to move through the system. At the same time, though, Notre Dame underwent a coaching change in 2021. Traditionally, that spells roster turnover. It’s a little delayed, but it’s not unusual.
It’s still possible the Irish could reload in the portal for this fall, with the program sitting at just 82 scholarship players out of the maximum 85, but outgoing Cincinnati quarterback Ben Bryant isn’t drawing much Notre Dame speculation, so leave him low on the list of possibilities. Bryant was only going to be a backup, and he doesn’t have eligibility beyond this year, so he was only going to be a solution to the problem of losing Buchner–as–backup. But, newsworthy, since his name initially drew some Notre Dame speculation when he announced his intent to leave Cincy.
In the NFL Draft, Michael Mayer and Isaiah Foskey were each taken in the second round, Mayer going to the site of the 2022 BYU game to play for the Las Vegas Raiders while Foskey goes to New Orleans to play for the Saints. The Texans drafted Jarrett Patterson in the sixth round. Six more players—Josh Lugg (Bears), Justin Ademilola (Packers), Chris Smith (Lions), Brandon Joseph (Lions), Jayson Ademilola (Jaguars), and Blake Grupe (Saints)—have signed and/or received an invitation to Rookie Mini Camp. To be honest, it’s possible those mean the same thing and I just don’t know.
On the men’s basketball side, there are no new signings. Kebba Njie took an official visit to UCF last week, Austin Nunez committed to Mississippi, Carey Booth took his official visit to South Bend but neither he nor Logan Imes has signed. Jordan Dingle, the Ivy League Player of the Year, entered the portal last week, but while Notre Dame has a little Ivy League history with Paul Atkinson, Dingle is drawing speculation at bigger programs. The transfer portal closes in ten days, so this week is big. The roster remains sparse.
This Week
The baseball team underperformed slightly on the week, taking the series over Florida State this weekend but losing at Michigan State on Tuesday. They’re 41st in RPI now, very much on the bubble with Bowling Green and NC State coming to town this week and weekend. As was the case last week, the goal should be to win three of four, with Bowling Green a cupcake and NC State far behind the Irish in the ACC Standings, even if their overall stock is higher.
In softball, the Irish were swept by likely ACC Champion Florida State, dropping the first in extra innings but the latter pair by the eight-run rule. They’ll host Central Michigan tomorrow night before taking the weekend off ahead of the ACC Tournament next week. Also at 41st in RPI, they’ll have work to do there to make the NCAA Tournament field.
In track & field, John Keenan set a school record in the javelin at the Texas Invitational, moving to third in the ACC and into the top 15 nationally. Erin Strzelecki won the 5K at the Penn Relays, amongst other highlights there, in Austin, and at the Drake Relays up in Des Moines. The Billy Hayes Invite is on the schedule in Bloomington this Friday ahead of the ACC Championships next week.
On the tennis court, brackets for both the team and individual NCAA Tournaments will be revealed over the next two days in both the men’s and women’s games. Freshman Sebastian Dominko is likely to be selected in men’s singles, he and Connor Fu may be selected for men’s doubles, and it’s possible there’ll be more than that. It’s more of a black box than full team sports.
In golf, Lauren Beaudreau earned an individual invitation to the Westfield Regional, hosted by Indiana. The men’s selections will be announced on Wednesday. It doesn’t appear likely anyone from Notre Dame will be invited.
The rowing team took a first-place finish, two third-place finishes, and two fourth-place finishes in the four-team Dale England Cup down at Indiana. They’re now off until the ACC Championship down at Clemson in two weekends.
