Notre Dame will have a first-time starting quarterback when next season opens at Miami.
On Thursday afternoon, that much became certain when quarterback Steve Angeli entered the transfer portal during the spring window, which opened Wednesday, The Athletic confirmed. Angeli, who started the Sun Bowl a year ago and played a part in Notre Dame’s win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl in January, will depart as a graduate transfer.
That means Notre Dame will turn to either CJ Carr or Kenny Minchey as its next starting quarterback, a tandem that each took four snaps last season, all during a blowout of Purdue in mid-September. Opening the 2025 season at Miami, then facing Texas A&M in the home opener, will be a massive jump for either quarterback. It’s a jump coach Marcus Freeman wanted to take based on the timing of Angeli’s departure.
After Notre Dame’s spring game last weekend, Freeman said he’d prefer if the quarterback competition were cut to two heading into summer and toward training camp, both for the sake of efficiency and letting the offense find a direction. Now that’s happened.
“We’ll talk about it and have discussions moving forward. You would like to be able to kind of go in the fall with a two-quarterback battle,” Freeman said before Thursday’s news. “It’s really hard with truly having a three-quarterback battle. But we’ve got to sit down and have conversations about what’s best for our program, what’s best for our quarterbacks, and we’ll make those decisions in the future.”
If the spring game was a referendum on who slotted where at quarterback, it’s not clear if Angeli lost the starting job, but he certainly didn’t win it. The junior went 8-of-11 for 108 yards and a touchdown, shaking off a slow start to hit his final seven passes. Carr went 14-of-19 for 170 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Minchey went 6-of-14 for 106 yards and also ran for a touchdown.
If Notre Dame went with Angeli, it would be considered the safe choice, considering his experience backing up both Sam Hartman and Riley Leonard the past couple of seasons. But it would also be a conservative one, considering Notre Dame brought in both Hartman and Leonard as transfers in part because it didn’t like what it had on the roster.
Freeman didn’t go that route this offseason after Carr got healthy following last season’s elbow injury and Minchey’s ability to grow into the offense. Now Notre Dame will see just how much both have developed since because there’s no Angeli there to back them up.
(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
