Notre Dame Is In No Hurry To Name A Starting Quarterback
As Notre Dame’s spring practice schedule winds down, head coach Marcus Freeman and his offensive staff are in no big hurry to name a starting quarterback. Freeman has a battle brewing for the starting job for the second time in his brief career.
It was Tyler Buchner and Drew Pyne in Freeman’s first run last spring and this year it’s Buchner and Wake Forest transfer Sam Hartman. Freeman watched both signal callers in action in a live scrimmage Saturday afternoon. The second-year Fighting Irish head coach emerged in no great rush to pick one over the other for the starting job.
"We’ll name a starting quarterback when I’m fully confident we have one starting quarterback,” Freeman offered after Saturday’s live scrimmage. "Both of them could be starting quarterbacks for us right now. They’re both improving, they’re both getting better. If you can have a competition and two guys are getting better, that’s what you want, that’s what you want. They’re both getting better, and they’re both practicing at a high level. We’ll name a starter at some point, I know we have to. I don’t plan to let this thing go into the season, but at some point I know we have to name a starter, and we will.
Freeman is likely to get some form of the question again this Saturday after the Blue-Gold Game. At that point, he will have a little more than four months – 126 days to be exact – until the Irish open the 2023 season against Navy in Dublin, Ireland.
Notre Dame’s new offensive coordinator, Gerad Parker, was the tight ends coach a year ago, but he finds himself running Freeman’s offense this spring with much greater pull in the decision on who the QB will be.
Parker has been pleased with the little things this spring. Things like consistency in the center-quarterback exchange, but real surprises haven’t surfaced.
"Honestly, usually, I would probably say there would be an honest answer or maybe yes, but not really,” Parker said when asked about any surprises this spring. "It's been probably expected Tyler Buchner to be exactly what he's been this spring and more and expected the same of Sam as he's improved, but also had to learn an entirely different way of life if you will, in an offensive setting. So, to see that progress, probably no surprise at this point, honestly.”
The most sizable adjustment for Hartman this spring has been getting acquainted with new teammates, new coaching staff and Notre Dame’s pro style offense. Otherwise, the veteran has shown the intangibles expected in a quarterback with five previous seasons and 48 games under his belt entering his final college season.
"His ability and maturity to not panic,” Parker said of Hartman. "I think that's the deal. When you've been through a lot of fires like he has and when you're in this game as a coach player, you understand that you have to be able to take the breath, manage things, not ride the wave of emotion and Sam's been able to do that. He's been able to manage some failures on things that just are going to happen because that's just the growth of learning new. He's managed those and not let himself get too high or too low for them. It's put himself in a position just to keep on getting better and you can see that from a veteran guy.”
Parker oversees the offense, but first-year quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli works with the group of signal callers, which also includes Steve Angeli and freshman early enrollee Kenny Minchey, on a daily basis.
"I think that, for us, the development has happened through one, a really strong relationship that's been built by the room through Gino and the guys,” Parker explained. “I think we think as a staff, that's probably the best part that they've really bonded, which you have to in that room to get things solved. So the development's happened well off the field, which really helps it. I said this the other day in another interview, I think this, that anytime you add maturity and guys like Sam Hartman to your program to that room, all it does is make everybody better, and Notre Dame has taught me now more than ever, that's what Notre Dame is about.
"Like we want to put special people in this program from the head coach down,” Parker continued. “When you do that, it's the adage that high tide raises all boats. That is what I've seen and what we've seen as a staff. So you know, I'm not dodging the question that everybody's going to want to ask. The developments been good. Buchner and Sam have both played at a high level. It's great to see Minchey come out today and play some high-level reps as a guy that still should be in high school, and Steve Angeli has really showed some promise in throwing the football as well. So that's really where it is. So all four have developed in their own way.”
All four quarterbacks will be on display in Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game. Snap judgements, good and bad, will follow with 126 days to go until the 2023 season begins.
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