What Question Marks Could Make or Break Notre Dame's Season?

Noah Wehby
May 27
4 min read

With the portal closed, the Notre Dame roster is set - and wow, is it ever stacked. There is talent at every level on the offense and defense. Most of the positions have quality depth behind the starters, so there are not a lot of weaknesses or question marks on this team. Finding these question marks is a little like splitting hairs. However, two positions still have things to prove this upcoming season.

Photo by The Irish Tribune

Quarterback

Obvious but important nonetheless. With Steve Angeli heading to Syracuse, CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey will battle it out in fall camp to determine who will be the next starting quarterback at Notre Dame. The quarterback battle has been a hotly contested topic around Notre Dame ever since the 2024 season ended. The spring game brought more clarity to the topic, as Minchey and Carr set themselves apart in the race.

Now, their battle will resume in the fall, with the starting position on the line. The concern at quarterback does not go away if either Carr or Minchey wins. Neither player has ever played meaningful minutes at the college level. That means that Notre Dame and this offense will be heading into the complete unknown when they take on Miami in Hard Rock Stadium.

With little to no experience, there's obviously cause for some concern regardless of who is named the starter. However, both options bring a plethora of tools with a much higher ceiling than what fans have seen in years past. Carr is a little more of a traditional pocket-passer, whereas Minchey offers more mobility and athleticism at the position. These two could have all the talent in the world, but Marcus Freeman won't truly know what they have until the first whistle is blown.

The rest of this roster is plenty good enough to raise the trophy at the end of the year, but it will have to have a quarterback that can get them there. It is yet to be determined if it will be Carr or Minchey who offers them the best chance to do that. They both have the potential to raise this team's ceiling to a National Championship level, but potential doesn't mean much when the lights shine the brightest.

Tight End

Notre Dame has a long lineage of fantastic tight ends that have come through the program. Most recently, Mitchell Evans' name was called on draft night to represent Notre Dame in the NFL.

This season, tight end may be a bit of a question mark. The tight end room, as it stands right now, is solid, but it does seem to lack a true difference maker at the position. The idea of that is livable if the wide receiver group carries the weight of the pass catching, but as most fans are aware, wide receiver has also been a weakness for the Irish over the past handful of seasons. With solid reinforcements through the portal in Malachi Fields and Will Pauling, and proven commodities already on the roster, the tight end position certainly raises bigger question marks.

The presumed starter, Eli Raridon, played a backup role in 2024 after suffering a series of injuries. Raridon is a solid player who is good in the run game and offers a reliable set of hands. That may be all Notre Dame needs at the position. If it is, Raridon will do just fine in that role. Freshman Jack Larsen impressed in the spring game as a downfield threat for CJ Carr. At 6'3'', 250 lbs, he certainly looks the part, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him carry that momentum into the season.

Denbrock and the rest of the offensive coaching staff may look at this position by committee, where they use different players to execute certain looks on the field. It will be interesting to see how this position group develops over the course of the year and well into the future. Is someone capable of taking that next step and continuing the rich tradition of dominant tight end play?

Special Teams

Notre Dame once again brings in a transfer kicker to be their starter. This year, it will be Noah Burnette from North Carolina. Burnette follows in the footsteps of Mitch Jeter, who was inconsistent all year due to a nagging groin injury. Although he was shaky, Jeter did hit one of the biggest kicks in Notre Dame history to send the Fighting Irish to the National Championship.

The question around Notre Dame's kicker also stems from inconsistency. Burnette's 2024 fell very short of the standard he had set in 2023. In 2023, he made 95% of his field goals with a long of 48. Those numbers made him one of the most accurate kickers in the entire country. The 2024 season was not quite to that same standard, only making 71% of his field goals.

Notre Dame just came off a year of dealing with inconsistent kicking that would sometimes put the team in some tough spots. Will Burnette be able to recreate the magic he found in 2023, or will Notre Dame fans continue to grit their teeth every time the field goal team marches out on fourth down?