Kenny Minchey Talks Path To Notre Dame And Working With Sam Hartman

Freshman quarterback Kenny Minchey has time to develop. The long-term expectations are reasonably high, but the short-term objectives are more moderate for the Notre Dame early enrollee. Since arriving on campus in January for the start of the spring semester, Minchey has been under the tutelage of veterans in the room like Tyler Buchner, Steve Angeli and veteran Wake Forest grad transfer Sam Hartman.

“It’s cool to be in the same room as him and to be able to learn from him because he has experience,” Minchey said of Hartman. “We’re around each other 24/7, really, because we do the same stuff every single day. It’s pretty cool being in the same room with him and being able to learn from him, someone who has a lot of experience. He’s a cool guy.”

The chance to work with Hartman as an early enrollee this spring could be invaluable for a young signal caller like Minchey. The Hendersonville, Tenn. standout is long on talent, but missed out on experience at the end of his high school career at Pope John Paul II School

Minchey started the first four games last fall but missed the next six games with a dislocated shoulder. He played in his team’s first round playoff game and finished the season with 1,007 yards and 15 touchdowns in just five games.

“I played in the first playoff game and I played fine,” Minchey recalled. “Then I was really sore so I couldn’t play the next week and we ended up getting put out. I had an MRI and the doctors said everything was cool. I just had a bone contusion, like a bone bruise. That’s where I get my pain from.”

The former four-star recruit spent weeks resting and rehabbing the shoulder after the premature end to his final high school season. He has since moved onto throwing the football, building strength and reconditioning an arm that saw him go from completing 61% of his passes as a junior to 73% in his four games before the injury in 2022.

Shoulder strength is not the only muscle he is trying to build in his first semester on the Notre Dame campus. He currently checks in at 212 pounds, which he says is fine by the Irish staff.

“They want me to stay about where I’m at,” Minchey relayed. “They’ve told all the freshman to lean out because that’s all you can really do. I didn’t really need to put on a whole bunch of weight. I’m not the biggest, but I’m not super small. Just kind of lean out and just stay where I’m at.”

But there are still strength goals he is shooting for.

“Getting stronger,” Minchey said when asked about his current top focus. “I feel like that’s big for any freshman coming in. Getting stronger will translate to the football field as far as the ball is coming out faster.”

Minchey could easily be going through the same process at Pittsburgh right now. The former SI All-American ranked No. 81 overall on the Irish Breakdown Top 100 from the summer when he was still committed to the Panthers.

He received calls from Irish head coach Marcus Freeman and then offensive coordinator Tommy Rees after his performance at the Elite 11 camp in Los Angeles last June. The initial conversations soon turned into an offer from the Fighting Irish.

“I just kept having talks with them and throughout all this, Coach Rees and Coach Freeman were hitting me up every few days, every day, just trying to get in contact with me,” Minchey recounted. “After a bunch of talks with my parents, Coach Rees had texted me again, randomly, out of the blue and I told my parents. Then I was up there the next weekend.”

The persistence of Freeman and Rees ultimately paid off. The highly touted 2023 recruiting class lacked a quarterback, but they gained a signal caller with clout when Minchey gave his commitment soon after the 44-0 Irish win over Boston College on November 22.

Minchey’s signing in December gave Notre Dame a 4-star quarterback to go along with a trio of 4-star receivers in the class in Braylon James, Jaden Greathouse and Rico Flores Jr. Minchey is known as one of the best throwers in the 2023 class, but he knows there is more to being a top college quarterback than just throwing the football.

“As far as the tools, I feel like if I didn’t have the tools, I wouldn’t be at a place like this,” Minchey said. “So I feel like it’s more mental, knowing where to go with the ball and everything like that. The mental part, coverages, learning the playbook, that’s big. You’ve got to know that and everything that goes with it.”

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