Marcus Freeman had the best of the best in his team when he stepped into the 2024 season. And after a trip to the National Championship, the Fighting Irish are fired up to complete the job this year. However, this team will have some new faces filling in for some important ones, who are now in the NFL. A major change will manifest itself in the QB room, as Riley Leonard leaves a huge void for his successor to fill this season. The fight for that spot is now down to two men. As the season opener nears, it seems that the good news will be dealt to one of them despite their inexperience. The other, however, will have to go back to backup duty.

Notre Dame cemented itself as a team worthy of the big prize after its 2024 season. That’s the bar Freeman has set for the current year. Anything short of a National Championship berth will have fans and trolls breathe fire down the coach’s neck. Leonard was a big part of the machinery that helped Freeman get that far in the season. His departure to the NFL opens the doors for CJ Carr – the main backup from last year – and Kenny Minchey. Freeman still hasn’t announced who will be the man for the job. However, the opinions are shifting overwhelmingly in favor of Carr.

That means Freeman will be breaking Notre Dame’s trend of using a transfer QB as a starter. Freeman had faith in his three existing recruits and did not pick a QB in the portal. Unlike most programs, Notre Dame’s QB1 battle is highly underplayed. CJ Carr is expected to go as a starter, but Kenny Minchey could very well throw him off track and claim the QB1 crown himself. During spring ball, there was a time when Minchey outperformed Carr. Both are inexperienced QBs who have a daunting task ahead of them. But maybe, the experts’ predictions stand, and Minchey loses this one to Carr.

“Everybody is projecting Notre Dame in the top 1, with the assumption that the offense is going to be good, and the quarterback play will be good,” Chip Patterson said in CBS HQ Spotlight. “CJ Carr has never thrown a meaningful pass, but I think that everybody around Notre Dame, including the media… believe that if you’re ever going to have confidence in a young quarterback to take this team through a little bit more difficult schedule, it’s a guy of CJ Carr’s talent,” he said. CJ, the grandson of Lloyd Carr, is expected to display his family’s legacy skills as well.

CJ Carr appeared in just one game for the Fighting Irish last season. But, he also comes with prep career yards tallied at 8,135, and 78 TDs. He’s had two years to marinate in the Notre Dame system and is ready to make the start. In Patterson’s eyes, Minchey is still the ‘backup’. “If you really want to build out that long-lasting, sustainable, you know, national title competitiveness, you need to be able to have it with some homegrown, talented quarterback. Winning the recruiting battle for CJ Carr was huge for Notre Dame, and now after spending a little bit of time as a backup, getting accustomed to college getting accustomed to the Notre Dame football program. Now it is his time to take over,” Patterson added.

Minchey, like Carr, comes with a minimal record in college football. Throughout his 2 years with the Fighting Irish, he has only 12 yards to his name. It’s understandable why Carr dominates the conversation when it comes to Notre Dame’s QB. The fight between QBs is a fierce one, which even saw one person (Steve Angeli) tap out. QB1 battle woes aside, Marcus Freeman is dealt a problematic result for this season.

Marcus Freeman to lose against Lincoln Riley?

Double-digit wins are a must for Freeman to emerge as a successful coach. Last year, Notre Dame had an upset against Northern Illinois in the beginning. From then on, they went on smooth sailing until D-Day, when the Fighting Irish lost to the Buckeyes. But that near-perfect season is having experts still rank Notre Dame finish way high on the list, just like last year. This year, Patterson predicts an 11-1 season! That one loss, the analyst thinks, will come at the hands of USC. It’s going to be a high-stakes matchup because of their rivalry.

“I believe that they will be favored in all 12 games, at kickoff of all 12 games,” Patterson added. “Put me down for USC as the one that knocks him off. But again, what I’m most confident in is that’s an 11 in 1 record against that schedule. A schedule where Notre Dame will be favored in all 12 games,” he added. “It is spice because we don’t know how much longer or how often USC and Notre Dame will play.” Lincoln Riley is controversially moving out of a series extension deal in 2026, which has a chance of ending the iconic Notre Dame-USC rivalry.

Notre Dame and USC have faced off every year, except when World War II interrupted everything. Riley now wants the contract to be assessed on a year-by-year basis, but Notre Dame just wants things to continue as is. Riley is leaning towards the ‘change is inevitable’ mindset to keep haters at bay. “If it was up to me, we would play them every single year for the rest of college football time,” Freeman said of the situation. He is coming off an 11-2 season. Meanwhile, Lincoln Riley is busy working to improve from a 7-6 finish. This is why the stakes are high for this game this season.

Marcus Freeman has the resources and the grit to finish what he started last year. This is, after all, not his first rodeo. He knows what it takes to get there. For that, CJ Carr better show up and match the production that Riley Leonard gave in his last year. While our eyes will be on how Notre Dame fares throughout the season, we’ll be on the lookout for how the big USC pans out.