Notre Dame Fighting Irish couldn’t quite end their 37-year-old national championship drought as they lost to Ohio State in the final in the 2024 season. And yet, even in their defeat, they are probably the most talked-about program right now in college football, even more than Ryan Day’s Ohio State. This is thanks to Marcus Freeman’s charisma and the underdog status they got running up to the Final, as opposed to Ryan Day’s $20 million tag.
Freeman has built on that and is starting to move chess pieces like a grandmaster. He hired one of the top minds for his running backs in Ja’Juan Seiders, from Penn State. The running back coach will surely be a gem in his already talented roster. The Irish head coach then went to grab another staff addition in Chris Ash, as his defensive coordinator. A former Rutgers head coach who has a vast experience in his resume in the NFL. No doubt that he reminds us of Al Golden in more than many ways. Then came Freeman’s master addition.
The Irish bossman has now hired Mike Martin as his new general manager after Michael Bearden left to join the Browns in the NFL. The new GM, who just had his first opening press conference at South Bend, is a steal in all ways, having a vast NFL experience ranging from the Detroit Lions to the Houston Texans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (his most recent job). In his opening press conference, he told us that he means business in all areas at Notre Dame and delivered a stern statement with that when asked about his plans for the transfer portal.
You know my beliefs in the NFL. I believed in the NFL throughout my career that you build through the draft, and you sort of supplement the roster in free agency. I mean, I’m sure you all heard that before. It’ll be very similar here. We’re again in the development business, so we’re going to lean heavily on our recruits and the guys that we recruit out of high school. We’re going to make sure that we get the right people, the right individuals.” He didn’t stop there and delivered a final warning about additions through the transfer portal.
We all know the kind of havoc that the transfer portal and NIL have played week in and week out in college football. Players jumping ships on a whim and lucrative deals lurking around them in the corner are always in a bid to poach them. Mike Martinacknowledged the impact of NIL and the transfer portal but still remained cautious about the repercussions of building through the portal. Furthermore, there’s another question as to whether his NFL exploits will effectively translate into college football. Given the dynamic and ever-changing nature of college football.
“We’re constantly looking to improve the roster, so we’ll do some of that by going to the portal; we won’t live in the portal, and obviously, we have academic things here, right? The academic rigor, like we pride ourselves on that. So we won’t be able to reach out to every single person in the portal; we’ll be very selective there.” The man is quite right since Notre Dame is one of the top football colleges that has a program at the level of the Ivy League colleges. He even asked the journalists about it.
Can you tell me any other schools where you can compete for national championships on the field and work in the classroom toward Ivy League-type degrees?” Not one journalist spoke up to counter him, and that tells you the kind of program Notre Dame has and the kind of vision Mike Martin is going to pursue at South Bend. That being said, there’s still a problem for Notre Dame going to the 2025 season.
Does Marcus Freeman have a quarterback problem on his hands?
That problem is their inability to fix their QB starter. Riley Leonard has exhausted his eligibility after a season that will be remembered for years. Furthermore, their existing QB prospects seem quite inexperienced relative to Leonard’s levels. CJ Carr is someone who hasn’t seen any snaps in his first season as a freshman. Then there’s Kenny Minchey, a sophomore last year who just has 16 yards to his name in his whole Irish career. The only player who has some experience is Steve Angeli.
Steve Angeli had some very good games in 2024 and has also featured in several games, although not as a starter. Take, for example, his Sun Bowl appearance, in which he started and garnered 232 passing yards at an average of 12.2 and three touchdowns. This is one of his best performances against Oregon State and probably his only credible performance in his 2 seasons at Notre Dame.
Moreover, there will be another problem in the hands of the head coach, and that will be to retain the $8.7 million NIL roster of his team, which delivered massive results in the 2024 season. The most important? Well, it will be Jeremiah Love, who has a $1.6 million NIL value, and offers would surely line up for him. Coming back to the QB dilemma, it all points to the QB race inside the team being quite open and wide. And it’s likely that we wouldn’t see any final update regarding the QB1 at Notre Dame until the spring practice ends this year.