When Coach Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish stepped up their Transfer Portal game last year a new QB came to town.

Now that QB (Sam Hartman) is leaving for the NFL Draft. Fans and critics have mixed feelings on Hartman, while he put up the statistics the Irish finished the regular season a disappointing 9-3. The Irish blew out Oregon State in the Sun Bowl. However, it was Irish back-up QB Steve Angeli who led the Irish to a 40-8 victory behind his 3 touchdown, 0 interception performance. So the Irish are in track with Angeli to be QB1 next season right? Wrong.

Once again Coach Freeman and the Irish utilized the Transfer Portal and Duke standout QB, Riley Leonard is now a Domer. Leonard comes in to 2024 after a disappointing 2023 season at Duke. His season was littered with injury and he only appeared in 7 games. Ironically he was knocked out of the September 30th 21-14 loss to Notre Dame.

This game may be most remembered for QB Sam Hartman waiting outside the locker room to wish Leonard a speedy recovery. When Leonard finally emerged on crutches the two embraced and exchanged pleasantries. Looking back on that moment that may be where Leonard’s journey to South Bend began.

Leonard finished the 2023 season with a mediocre 3 TD/3 INT performance. Surely the injuries played a huge part in those stats. The Irish are looking at his 2022 season as the reason why they brought him in. In 2022 Leonard tossed 20 TDs with only 6 INTs and ran for another 11 TDs. He’s a duel threat QB, something the Irish teams of the past took pride in.

Maybe Leonard can “wake up the echoes” and spring this team into the new expanded 12-team playoff next season.

Now where’s this leave our Sun Bowl hero, Steve Angeli? All signs point to a QB competition in spring practice that will be capped off in the Spring inter-squad game. Last year we saw Gator Bowl MVP Tyler Buchner get outplayed by Hartman in the spring game and the starting job became Hartman’s. Buchner then jumped in the transfer portal and followed his former OC, Tommy Reis to Alabama.

I’m my opinion QB competitions are a good thing. Having both players locked in and working hard in the offseason is a positive. Now if Leonard wins the job as expected there’s a fear in Irish Nation that Angeli will head to the portal as well. ND used to be known for developing QBs but the portal is creating a new tradition in South Bend. We will soon find out if this new way of thinking pays dividends

By Reggie Sanderson Follow on X: @Cowboy_Regg

Photo courtesy of CBS in South Bend

Reggie Sanderson is the co-host of the Sons of the Star Podcast. He also has a Irish-fan based Twitter account at @Irish_Cowboy88