Would Marcus Freeman rotate QBs? Which Irish WRs are emerging? Notre Dame mailbag
Let's get started with this week's Notre Dame mailbag.
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Notre Dame plays two ranked teams and plays an SEC road game in the first month of the season. What are the odds that Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr both play meaningful snaps before October hits? Is Freeman going to be as fluid with his QB1 as Brian Kelly was? — Tim C.
Nothing would surprise me, although Freeman has said he's not a fan of rotating quarterbacks like he does at other positions. But Freeman's first three seasons have shown he's willing to think outside the box with personnel. I don't expect him to rotate quarterbacks within a game by choice, but could Minchey and Carr both get a shot based on the opponent? Could one be ineffective in his first start at Miami, forcing a switch? That's got to be on the table for the offensive staff, no matter who wins the job.
It's worth remembering that while at Cincinnati, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock benched his starting quarterback in the first half of the first game of the season and replaced him with a freshman named Desmond Ridder. Doing that is hardly ideal, especially after staging a camp competition where you should feel good about the chosen winner. But Denbrock won't hesitate if a change needs to be made. And Freeman has shown a willingness to roll the dice on young talent, which showed along the offensive line last August.
One week into training camp, every bit of information I've picked up, whether that's on the record or on background, indicates Notre Dame has a real quarterback competition on its hands, and the coaches have described it as 50-50 inside the Gug.
Beyond Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, who do you think get most of the leftover carries? You'd think it would be Aneyas Williams, but Kedren Young looks to force his way on the field. And it seems Gi'Bran Payne is an afterthought? — Casey M.
The answer might be none of the above. Because based on how position coach Ja'Juan Seider rotated running backs the past three years at Penn State with Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, he won't spread the wealth just to keep people happy.
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The past three seasons, Singleton and Allen totaled 1,058 carries — that's 176 carries each per season. Penn State's No. 3 and No. 4 running backs over those season totaled 122 carries, meaning they each averaged 20 for the season, less than two carries per game.
Would Williams, Young or Payne be satisfied with that? Probably not. Would you want to see more touches for Love and Price? Would that increase Notre Dame's chances of winning games? Yes and yes.
Internally, how snaps and carries/touches get divided is a discussion point for the offense after Love got just four carries in the national championship game despite playing 41 snaps. He was targeted twice, made two catches and totaled five yards receiving. Not ideal. Love can't just touch the football on 15 percent of his snaps. Seider will probably make sure that doesn't happen again.
Yes, there should be carries to go around in games when Notre Dame gets a big lead. That's where Williams and Young can get some work. But I don't think that's really the question you're asking. You want to know, in big moments, how much will RB3 play and who's that going to be? The smart money is Williams holding down that job, and he's probably more talented than Penn State's RB3 the past few seasons. It's just not clear how many touches that job will earn. Would matching last year's 52 total touches be a win?
Who's most likely to emerge as a contributor this season at wide receiver: Micah Gilbert, KK Smith, or Elijah Burress? — TS
Gilbert gets my vote, in part because the coaches liked him most among the three-man sophomore class as a recruit and in part because his skill set sets up a clearer path to the field than that of Smith or Burress. Gilbert has the physical strength to play in the boundary, where Malachi Fields will start. Smith and Burress are more field receivers, where Jordan Faison, Will Pauling and Jaden Greathouse can all play. If Notre Dame uses more two-back sets with a tight end this season, that will pull the classic slot receiver off the field. In that scenario, you're probably not sitting Greathouse, so the reps might be limited even more for Smith and Burress. Those two receivers are still developmental in terms of their physical strength, too.
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All three of these guys have popped at least once during the media viewings of practice, although Gilbert's over-the-shoulder catch on a deep ball from Carr on Saturday morning left an impression.
In the end, it doesn't matter which one of these guys gets the most reps. Notre Dame just needs one (or two) of them to earn playing time. On paper, the Irish have a very good top four of Greathouse, Pauling, Fields and Faison. But all four have an injury history. Greathouse was held out of Wednesday's practice.
For the sake of context, Notre Dame's No. 5 receiver in snaps played the past five seasons from 2020 to '24 — Braden Lenzy, Deion Colzie, Matt Salerno, Chris Tyree and Jayden Thomas — averaged 12 catches for 169 yards and one touchdown. And Tyree accounted for the majority of that yardage. Notre Dame needs a fifth receiver to emerge, but it shouldn't have to rely on him.
What are the odds of Tae Johnson being the starting safety alongside Adon Shuler? As a fellow Tae (not a common name in the sport), should I start getting ready to buy his jersey? — Tae K.
My hunch is to give it a year. It wouldn't surprise me if Notre Dame started Adon Shuler and Jalen Stroman most of the season but still play Luke Talich and Tae Johnson. Shuler and Stroman could depart after the season, opening the door for Johnson and Talich to start in 2026. It's always a good sign when young talent beats out older talent for playing time. And I think Johnson will play a lot this season. I'm just not ready to put him in the starting lineup based on last week's opening practice.
Based on special teams periods on Wednesday morning, Johnson will be a critical part of Notre Dame's kick coverage (and probably punt coverage) unit.
One thing that feels different under Marcus Freeman in comparison to Brian Kelly is the willingness to give true freshmen meaningful time in critical moments. Higher quality of recruits? More trust from the staff? What's the difference? — Matt P.
For the record, it's not like there aren't examples of this under Brian Kelly: KeiVarae Russell, TJ Jones, Kyle Hamilton, Joe Alt, Jaylon Smith, Kurt Hinish, Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, Stephon Tuitt, Aaron Lynch, Michael Mayer, Clarence Lewis, Blake Fisher, Tyler Buchner, etc. Some of those were by design. Some were out of desperation. But freshmen regularly played front-line roles under Kelly.
Still, I'd point to a combination of factors that have made Freeman more likely to play young talent. For one, the talent is better. Benjamin Morrison, Bryce Young and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa would play as freshmen on any Notre Dame team under any coach. Still, some of the freshman contributors have been a product of desperate times calling for desperate measures. In ideal circumstances, Notre Dame doesn't have Rico Flores lead all receivers as a freshman. Anthonie Knapp wasn't supposed to start a game. Leonard Moore should still have been an up-and-coming cornerback. Every team in the country has to play young talent before it wants to, and young talent makes mistakes and typically costs coaches games.
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The bigger story with Freeman's staff is how ready he's had those freshmen when the staff didn't have a choice but to play them. Knapp's performance over 15 games in place of Charles Jagusah and beating out Tosh Baker was remarkable. You could argue the Irish secondary got better after Morrison went down and Notre Dame turned to Moore.
There's no magic bullet with offseason training or development. But Freeman's staff has done an excellent job of making these young players believe they're capable of playing and calling the game that way. Notre Dame's defense didn't change radically when Moore came in. The offensive game plans weren't massively different with Knapp. Notre Dame's staff has done well to identify talent coming out of high school, but it has done even better in prepping it for primetime.
It's also worth remembering that the transfer portal incentivizes coaches to play freshmen more often. You're more likely to keep a player on your roster if he's getting work. Freeman knows this.
Jeremiyah Love has posted multiple Instagram stories playing NCAA 2026 with Kenny Minchey as the starting quarterback. As someone who plays the game, CJ Carr is the default starter, so that means Love would have had to go and manually put in Minchey (unless Carr got hurt). Thoughts? – AJ M.
What a question!
I wish I had seen this before Love's media availability last weekend, otherwise I would have snuck in this question. My hunch is Love values quarterback mobility, which Denbrock does as well.
On a more serious note, that is a bit of a wild card in the quarterback competition. Denbrock's best offenses have the threat of quarterback run. Maybe not as much as Riley Leonard could run it, but more than some recent Notre Dame quarterbacks. Carr is plenty mobile behind the line of scrimmage. Minchey is mobile behind and beyond it.
On a personal level, in my Vanderbilt dynasty on NCAA 2026, Carr won the Heisman and Minchey transferred to Tennessee, where he shredded my Commodores' defense for more than 400 passing yards before breaking his collarbone on the game's final play.
(Photo of Micah Gilbert: Michael Clubb / South Bend Tribune / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
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