Marcus Freeman plans to waste no time getting his starting quarterback prepared to lead Notre Dame against Miami at Hard Rock Stadium on Aug. 31. The fourth-year head coach wants to get CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey up to speed in training camp before starting the season against the Hurricanes and Texas A&M.
During an appearance on the “Unsportsmanlike” podcast, Freeman said that he’s planning to change up the format of training camp this summer so his inexperienced quarterbacks can get a game-like feel before the Irish play Miami.
Marcus Freeman is making some changes this summer
“I think every year you have a foundation for how you want to prepare in training camp,” Freeman said on Thursday. “And that foundation hasn’t changed over my four years as a head coach. But each year you modify your practices and what you’re doing based off what your team needs, what this group of talent needs to make sure we’re ready to go for week one.
“We have two guys that are battling for this quarterback position, and neither of them have true game starting experience. And so we have to find unique ways to create, to get them some of that experience in training camp. And so we have to be intentional about some unscripted periods.”
Notre Dame needs their quarterbacks to look experienced quickly
© MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Freeman believes the quarterback competition during training camp will make the team better. He suggested that the defense will be throwing a lot of different things at Carr and Minchey this summer, so they enter the season battle-tested before they play a defense that has College Football Playoff aspirations.
“They have to make decisions,” Freeman said. “They have to see some things they haven’t seen. And they got to kind of understand the pressure that it’s going to happen when game one’s coming. And we got to find ways to do that in practice. And so I’m looking forward to it. I love competition.
“I think, you know, it’s truly going to make the entire team better, especially those two quarterbacks. But we’ll be unique a little bit in our training camp.”
It took Riley Leonard a couple of games to become acclimated to the Irish offense last year. The Irish scored just 37 points in their first two contests with an experienced senior quarterback who transferred from Duke.
This year, Carr or Minchey are trying to continue the success of a program that reached the national championship game by starting out against two talented defenses that can get pressure with their front seven.
Fortunately, the Irish’s defense should be a formidable challenge and teacher in camp.
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