How will Notre Dame handle its unknown backup QB? And more Marcus Freeman preseason worries
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman spent part of his summer being asked questions he couldn’t answer.
Between moving the football program into its new facility in Shields Hall and making a family trip to South Korea, Notre Dame’s head coach made the rounds at ESPN in mid-July. It was basically Notre Dame’s version of media day, just without the outlets that cover the team regularly. And that led to Freeman being asked questions that felt more like traps than inquires.
“They’re looking for certain answers they know they’re probably not going to get out of me,” Freeman said Tuesday. “How good of a team are you guys? I think we’re going to be good. Give me, what’s your record? What are you going to do? I’m not going to say that, but I don’t believe in saying it.”
Quarterback CJ Carr, safety Adon Shuler, linebacker Drayk Bowen and cornerback Leonard Moore accompanied Freeman to New York on the media tour. If Freeman doesn’t need any more reps on live television, his players might. And that was sort of the point, to get some of the talking out of the way before the season starts.
Freeman met with local reporters on Tuesday afternoon for the first time since before the Blue-Gold Game in April. In addition to putting a finer point on his Notre Dame future, he updated a key injury and explained how the staff will rethink camp, with an eye on QB2.
More than a year removed from the UTV accident that ended Charles Jagusah’s junior season before it began, one of the Irish’s most talented offensive linemen remains sidelined with no timetable for his return.
Jagusah has undergone at least five surgeries to help rebuild his arm after suffering a compound fracture with lingering nerve damage, and Freeman admitted the former top-100 prospect won’t be ready when the season begins at Lambeau Field against Wisconsin. Freeman isn’t sure when Jagusah will be available, but he remains optimistic that his college career didn’t end on that UTV in Wyoming a year ago.
“He just continues to come here with a great attitude and go to work,” Freeman said. “I don’t know when he’s gonna be on that football field, but I think he’ll, at some point, hopefully, sooner than later, he’ll be on the field.”
Jagusah has barely played over his first three college seasons, but he has shown himself to be a potential pro prospect when he has. He started the Sun Bowl as a freshman after Joe Alt and Blake Fisher opted out. After suffering a pectoral/shoulder injury in training camp two years ago that seemed certain to end his season, Jagusah returned to play against Penn State in the Orange Bowl at guard, then shifted to left tackle against Ohio State in the national title game.
With a healthy Jagusah, the Irish might have the best offensive line of Freeman’s tenure, with left tackle Will Black, left guard Anthonie Knapp, center Ashton Craig and right tackle Guerby Lambert. Instead, Notre Dame will have a competition at right guard between Sullivan Absher and Matt Augustine to fill the spot Jagusah would have locked down.
Could Jagusah make the same kind of late-season return that he did two years ago? Freeman didn’t want to go there, but it’s hard to believe the coach wouldn’t sign up for that deal if offered.
“The expectation right now is just continue to help him get to a position where he could play football,” Freeman said. “He won’t be ready to start the season, but at some point, can we get him to a point where he can help our team? That’s the goal for everybody.
“At some point Charles will play football, he will.”
Notre Dame doesn’t know who its backup quarterback will be for the Wisconsin game.
It doesn’t know who its backup quarterback will be for the mid-October trip to BYU, either, and there’s no guarantee it will be the same player who wins the job for Week 1.
That’s the challenge facing quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli when preseason practice opens in two weeks. He’ll have to fill out the depth chart while never writing anything in permanent marker other than Carr’s name at the starter spot. Behind him, Blake Hebert, Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard have all never taken a collegiate snap, let alone thrown a pass.
How does Notre Dame decide who’s No. 2, and how many reps can the Irish afford to burn on making that decision in the weeks ahead? Carr will need the work to adjust to a revamped receiver corps.
“It’s a unique challenge,” Freeman said. “It’s hard to evaluate a guy who’s just on scout team, but then how many guys do you leave up with the travel squad?”
If all goes to plan, the unidentified backup won’t play much in 2025 beyond the end of blowout wins. And Notre Dame might start the season with six of those. Kenny Minchey played just 87 snaps last season, none significant. The year before that, Steve Angeli played 103, with his nine snaps against Penn State in the Orange Bowl helping Notre Dame advance to the title game.
Ultimately, that’s the goal for Notre Dame: Figure out the backup quarterback and make sure he’s good enough by November to get the train on the tracks if Carr gets temporarily knocked out of the game. But getting to an answer means asking the question repeatedly, starting in August.
“You have to name a backup quarterback by Week 1. Now, that doesn’t mean that backup quarterback is going to be a backup quarterback Week 2, 3 or 4,” Freeman said. “We’ll have to adapt as we continue to move forward through camp.”
For all the good vibes around Notre Dame — just ask the fan base — Freeman’s history of blowing a tire in the season’s first month still lingers, even for a team with a chance to be preseason No. 1.
The Irish have yet to get out of September undefeated under Freeman. There was the home loss to Marshall, never mind the escape against Cal a week later, in Freeman’s debut season. The home loss to Ohio State with 10 men on the field for the clinching touchdown left a scar. Northern Illinois may rank among the most ridiculous losses in school history, considering Notre Dame ended up in the national title game. And last year’s back-to-back losses to Miami and Texas A&M by a total of four points ended Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff hopes … even if no one knew it at the time.
Freeman knows there’s an issue here, and he has tasked the entire program with trying to solve it. But does he have the right answers? He’s going to believe he does, even if he’ll admit he won’t know until after the season starts.
“I don’t care if you’re doing media (relations) or you’re doing recruiting or you’re doing nutrition or you’re doing athletic training, the weight room, sports science, everybody was challenged to evaluate our process,” Freeman said. “What you don’t want to do is fall into a trap of, you’re changing everything when it doesn’t need to be blown up. It just needs enhancing.”
The staff spent summer rethinking the plan for training camp, especially after last year, when a defense that finished among the nation’s best looked lost during an 0-2 start. Freeman said the big plays allowed against Miami and Texas A&M were the fault of more than just defensive coordinator Chris Ash, though Ash is more familiar with his personnel entering his second season with the program.
In theory, the Irish should be able to change their preseason process without much fear of failure, considering they will be two-touchdown favorites in its first six games. Then again, Northern Illinois and Marshall happened.
“How are we executing, looking at all those different things?” Freeman said. “The big plays given up defensively, why? Why are we having big plays or not having big plays offensively? All those things have been evaluated and will be evaluated after the first couple of games.”