A sizable portion of the Notre Dame fanbase would cheer loudly if Steve Angeli started for the Fighting Irish on Saturday, given the struggles of the Notre Dame passing game this season. The only people whose opinions matter on who starts for the Irish – the coaching staff – however, are not wavering in their convictions on starting Riley Leonard. The Irish coaching staff trusts the signs of progress evident in back-to-back wins over the last two weeks. Their patience could be close to paying off… or blowing up in their faces.
Most Notre Dame fans would have loved to see the Irish offense throw it for over 300 yards at least once in the last three weeks. Instead, the Irish have only topped 200 just once, and no single quarterback has had more than 200 yards in a game this season. Still, the Irish passing game showed some signs of life a week ago, and that progress has the Irish staff optimistic that they may be on the verge of a breakout.
Notre Dame finally pushes the ball deep but remains inconsistent
Notre Dame barely even attempted downfield passes over the first three games of the season but finally started to push the ball last week. Leonard only attempted four passes over 20 air yards through the first three games of the season. He attempted three against Miami of Ohio, including his 38-yard touchdown to Beaux Collins – his only passing score of the season. Against Purdue, Leonard only attempted three total passes over 10 yards without a single completion.
In addition to Leonard’s touchdown to Collins, deep passes (that don’t show up in the stat sheet) resulted in three different pass interference penalties. One of those penalties prevented what looked like it would have been a touchdown for Kris Mitchell. The goal of any offenses isn’t to draw pass interference penalties, Miami dared Leonard to beat them deep with man coverage and ended up paying the price.
For the good of last week, there was also some bad. Leonard missed some early layups that offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock called explicitly to give him some easy-access throws to get him in a rhythm. Chuck Knoblauch comparisons were being made, and it’s fair to wonder if Leonard would have been pulled if he airmailed one more easy pass. He didn’t, though; for the first time this season, he started to look comfortable in the pocket.
“As you evaluate the film, we actually threw the ball downfield really well,” Marcus Freeman said on Monday. “Probably the best we’ve done, but we missed some layups, and those are the ones that I’m sure everybody’s talking about; everybody sees the layups. But those will be corrected in practice. We’ve got to continue to do movement throws.”
In the loss to Northern Illinois, Leonard looked anything but comfortable. He bailed on several clean pockets, running into pressure instead of stepping up into them and letting it rip. He still probably isn’t as comfortable as the staff would like, but there were always going to be some growing pains after Leonard missed the entire spring. Leonard didn’t do that nearly as much in the win over Miami – especially in the second half after he hit the long touchdown to Collins.
“I think he did a good job of being a quarterback for our offense. And there is always room to grow,” Freeman said of Leonard on Monday. “We’re never satisfied. We’re greedy people. I know there are a couple plays he wishes he could re-do. Guess what? We’ll have the opportunity to re-do it on Saturday.”
Mitchell Evans’ progress may help spark Notre Dame offense
Another reason to think that a breakout could be coming for this offense is the progress of Mitchell Evans from his off-season surgery. Evans’s snap count has increased each week, with him playing 39 snaps a week ago in the win over Miami. His production hasn’t followed the same uptick, with a season-high of just 27 yards receiving. Evans had four catches for 71 yards and a touchdown last year against Louisville.
“He’s as good as we expect him to be. He’s really playing at a high level,” said Freeman of Evans earlier this week. “I know his production might not be as much or where it was last year, but he’s doing some really good things. We gotta continue to use him in the run game and some other things and get him to continue to progress there. Mitch is a threat for us. We can put him in the box. We can flex him out. He’s going to be a mismatch for a lot of defenders.”
Hopefully, Evans will be a mismatch for Louisville this weekend.
Notre Dame banks on Leonard’s running while waiting on passing
While the passing game has been a work in progress—to say the least—the Irish running game has been what they have hung their hat on. Leonard’s running ability is specifically why the staff has been wise to be patient in sticking with Leonard. He’s been so good as a runner that the threat of him running alone gives defenses so much to account for that the gamble of hoping he gets it together passing is worth the risk. It is not, however, without risk.
We’ve seen a Notre Dame offense with a dual-threat quarterback wait for the passing to come along, but it never does. In 2017, Brandon Wimbush was piling up gaudy rushing statistics while struggling through the air. There were even games when it looked like Wimbush was about to turn a corner passing. Then the Miami debacle happened, and it wasn’t long before he was getting replaced by Ian Book. That kind of outcome is still very possible. It’s also still very possible that Leonard and Notre Dame will build on last week’s passing improvements while continuing to burn defenses on the ground.
The big question right now is whether or not the progress can continue this weekend against a defense like Louisville to keep Notre Dame’s playoff hopes alive. The staff will have to walk a fine line between remaining patient and doing whatever it takes to beat Louisville. If the Irish were to fall behind by a couple of scores and need to pass the ball, for instance, how long would they stick with Leonard instead of inserting Angeli?
Notre Dame’s been down that road before, too, with Jack Coan and Tyler Buchner a few years back, too. Coan struggled after a big road win to start his Notre Dame career behind a young and inexperienced offensive line. Then head coach Brian Kelly pulled Coan for Buchner on the road against Virginia Tech in what looked like the beginning of the Tyler Buchner era. Instead, Coan settled back in after a bye week and led Notre Dame to an 11-1 regular season.
There will be opportunities for downfield passes for the Irish this weekend, with Louisville almost certainly daring Leonard to beat them deep. The big question will be whether or not Leonard can hit one early to soften up the Cardinal defense. If he can’t, the pressure will mount on Leonard and the Irish offense with each incompletion. Still, there have been signs of progress from Leonard and the offense, even if it hasn’t come as quickly as most fans would like. We’ll know quickly on Saturday if Freeman and Denbrock’s patience will be rewarded.
NotreDame for several years now covering the entire Kelly years and Freeman’s first 3 years has done a poor job of evaluating and developing quarterbacks. You have to go back 15 to 20 years to find a all American/Heisman trophy level quarterbacks Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen and both of them played on teams that had a horrible defense. There is no doubt in my mind if NotreDame would have went with Angeli or would have brought in Cam Ward,Will Howard or Dillon Gabriel they would be 4 and 0 and none of the games would have even been close. It is a shame because for the 1st time since 1993 NotreDame has the talent and coaching to make a run at a national championship. When you don’t have an elite quarterback you can’t win big. It’s like having a great baseball team at every position and putting an average or below average pitcher. Michigan and Florida State are in the same boat as NotreDame.
T
I totally agree with the critique of past QB development and/or use
of QB. Angeli would have been a good QB to lean on last year. Sam Hartman is an awesome young man. But bringing him in didn’t get a playoff bid or NC. Just as likely falling short of an NC and a playoff bid in jeopardy, bringing in the next transfer is not the answer. Develop from within.
Angeli is really right there. Carr and Minchy not far behind. Eat this year in favor of next.
And on the future topic, you really want to see Carr as next year’s starter with possibly Minchy in there if he jumps ahead in development.
Angeli will need to start somewhere and is good enough.
You want Carr so that you can show Noah G. The 2026 commit that ND can develop.
Let Deuce Knight go. If the 2026 commit can be kept you don’t need a 2025 commit. Get a fast tall receiver. Develop that one.
I’m still having a hard time understanding why the Irish went after Leonard in the first place? Angelli seemed natural to be the next starter. I don’t get it.
I can see going to the transfer portal if you don’t have a QB ready to go for the season, like last year. But all signs seemed to indicate it was time for Angelli.
I seriously worry if Freeman keeps bringing in transfers to play the QB position year after year, we’re going to start having serious problems recruiting the QB position. And I said before if I were Angelli I’d probably start to wonder if my best opportunity laid elsewhere.
We’ll see. I imagine part of the reason the coaching staff is so ‘committed’ to Leonard is the money they invested. I wonder if there was no money involved would Leonard still be trotting out there as a QB.
If Leonard plays incredibly well then great. If not put in Angeli and start making some Tebow packages for Leonard. Florida did it and it worked so well for them.
RL is extremely limited in the passing game. That won’t change this year, next year or ever.
He unfortunately won’t sniff the NFL except maybe as a tight end.
However, he still walks away with $1 million from ND
This 1 dimensional offense will be exposed in the next 8 games with probably a couple more losses.
The best option is to bring on a backup QB now so he will be able to lead ND to playoffs in 2025. Bench RL now.
I agree. Start Leonard but the 1st signs of inaccuracy , bailing out of the pocket, not seeing open receivers, reading the defense and going through his progressions get him out of there. Angeli has proven albeit 8n limited opportunities that he is pretty accurate and can move the offense.