Notre Dame mailbag: Is it over with USC? Fun watching film with Marcus Freeman?

New York Times

06-06-2025

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Welcome back to the Notre Dame mailbag.
You've got questions, so let's get started.
Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length.
As the USC series appears to be approaching its end, how much of the blame falls on the Big Ten essentially holding USC hostage? Do you think this could be a sign of things to come as the wheel of college football 'progress' churns toward a Big Ten/SEC super league, and is there a world in which Notre Dame is blackballed from scheduling games against foes from those conferences? — Jack Z.
For starters, the Big Ten didn't force USC to join, destroying the Pac-12 in the process. That was USC's decision, which all but dragged UCLA, Washington and Oregon to follow the Trojans' lead, toppling a conference and scattering it across the Big 12 and ACC.
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As for the 'sign of things to come' aspect of scheduling, it's worth monitoring. It's also worth acknowledging Notre Dame has home-and-home agreements with Alabama, Florida, Texas, Texas A&M, Purdue, Michigan State, Arkansas, Indiana and Michigan on future schedules. Ohio State just came off as a home-and-home. The Shamrock Series created a neutral-and-neutral against Wisconsin.
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As much as both leagues feel like they're taking their scheduling ball and going home, it's hard to imagine those conferences shunning Notre Dame (and the money associated with the Irish) to prove some high-minded point. The 'join a conference!' crowd is primarily fans and a few coaches. It never seems to be from the administrators running the sport. The adults in the room know Notre Dame is good for business.
None of that means the USC series is on solid ground, however. But there's a difference between playing a home-and-home with Notre Dame and being locked into a perpetual series with the Irish. I'd doubt the teams cycling through Notre Dame's schedule would jump at the chance to play Notre Dame every year on top of their SEC or Big Ten slates.
As much as USC is to blame for the current stalemate in the series, Lincoln Riley's willingness to walk away from one of the great rivalries in the sport makes sense for College Football Playoff contention purposes. (Yes, this assumes Riley can build a CFP-contending roster.) USC traveled to Michigan, Maryland and Minnesota last year. This year, it's got trips to Illinois, Purdue, Nebraska and that October date at Notre Dame. The Trojans don't think they need that additional travel to South Bend. USC probably doesn't want the extra competition, either, considering it just went 7-5 and finished ninth in the conference.
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Notre Dame probably needs the series more than USC does. But the Trojans need a win over the Irish to validate Riley's project, which feels tenuous at best. Too many cautious programs and coaches worry about the schedule being too hard. They should spend more time on the upside of winning signature games.
Marcus Freeman has already proved himself that way, not just by beating USC but by making the CFP run. Riley is much less defined, but a potential win over Notre Dame may change the perceptions around USC. He just needs to have the constitution to take on that challenge. It's not clear that he does.
What's one thing you learned breaking down film with Freeman that maybe felt different from the previous versions of the series with players? — Terence M.
Thanks for checking out that story. It was a lot of fun.
The biggest difference between sitting down with the head coach instead of a player was understanding all the moving parts of the play opposed to just diving deep with one player on one assignment. But what struck me most going over the plays was how much there was to critique and how Freeman jumped all over it. Like, he was still bothered by receivers missing blocks in games that happened seven months ago. Games Notre Dame won! He even told me a couple of plays to go watch on my own, plays that had stuck with him that much.
Freeman talks a lot in news conferences about not being outcome-driven and chasing perfection, but after watching just eight plays with him, I wonder if there are more than a dozen 'perfect plays' in a 150-play game. Maybe this shouldn't be a surprise, but getting 11 college kids to do the exact right thing at the exact right time seems really, really difficult.
Is the lack of a 2027 quarterback offer a sign of maturity and incorporating lessons learned after being burned by longtime QB decommits, or a sign of the downside of having a season that stretches so deep into January? — Andrew B.
It's the downside of having a season stretch until Jan. 20.
Notre Dame couldn't use the winter contact period to evaluate quarterbacks in person, which is how the staff would have played it under normal circumstances. Whether it was offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock or quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli, they'd have crisscrossed the country to see quarterbacks throw in person. Instead, they were preparing for the national championship game. And yeah, that's a trade Notre Dame would be willing to make every year, even if it means being behind in quarterback recruiting.
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For the sake of context, it's worth remembering that Notre Dame landed four-star quarterback Noah Grubbs about this time last summer, just before Irish Invasion. But he'd camped at Notre Dame a year earlier and the Irish staff had been targeting him for months. The Deuce Knight situation was similar, with the Mississippi product targeted during the summer and committing before the Ohio State game two years ago. CJ Carr committed the summer before his junior year, same with Tyler Buchner and Steve Angeli. It's not like Notre Dame can't pivot late when forced to adjust, landing Kenny Minchey in November of his senior year or grabbing Blake Hebert in October of his senior year. The Minchey/Hebert timelines are not ideal because they delay putting a face on your recruiting class while also making it harder to pursue wideouts. Minchey was a late flip from Pitt after the Irish struggled to attract quarterbacks after landing Carr and missing on Dante Moore. Hebert was a reaction to Knight flipping to Auburn.
I'm not entirely sure there's a 'lessons learned' element to quarterback recruiting this cycle as Notre Dame would chase Knight just the same this cycle as last. Would that be a smart move considering the 'fit' that's so important at Notre Dame? Debatable.
Bottom line, quarterback recruiting is a crapshoot of the highest order. And that's true for everybody, not just Notre Dame. The most successful quarterback of the modern era was a three-star flip from Washington State, Ian Book. The highest-rated quarterbacks the Irish did sign haven't panned out: Brandon Wimbush, Tyler Buchner and Phil Jurkovec. And with the transfer portal available to Notre Dame, the penalty for missing at the position is simply a matter of money. There's always a Riley Leonard, Sam Hartman or Jack Coan available.
So yes, Notre Dame needs to make a decision at quarterback for the Class of 2027 soon. I'd expect that to happen in the coming weeks. But with the uncertainty of the position combined with ability to get out of jail free (even if 'free' means a seven-figure investment), the Irish don't need to panic in making that quarterback call.
Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman capped their third years at Notre Dame with a run to the national title game. Which coach had the more impressive first three seasons — Kelly with his ground-up reinvention or Freeman's seemingly sustainable build (plus his overwhelming buy-in from the fan base)? — Ryan M.
There aren't many places where Kelly should get the nod over Freeman with Notre Dame's fan base.
This remains one.
Kelly took a broken program and put it in the national championship game in three years. Freeman took a College Football Playoff regular and did the same. Notre Dame lost to Navy and UConn in the season before Kelly took over. Notre Dame went 11-1 and won its final six games by an average of 27.3 points in the season before Freeman took over as head coach.
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As much as Year 3 under Freeman had a soul that Kelly's third season did not, thanks to the wins over Georgia and Penn State, it's hard to overstate the magic of 2012 when Notre Dame was the story of college football. Put another way, there was never a question last season if Notre Dame was relevant or capable of climbing the sport's mountain. Before Kelly's third season, it was an existential question if Notre Dame had been relegated to the has-been era of the sport.
If Freeman proved people right about Notre Dame, Kelly had to first prove people wrong.
Now the question is about sustaining success, which Freeman seems much more capable of doing. The university is more invested in football's success. The depth of recruiting is better. And as Ryan noted, the fan base is behind the head coach more now than then.
I remember walking into the first practice before the 2013 season and telling another reporter it felt like we were going to cover three months of air coming out of the balloon. And that's what happened. Very little about Notre Dame football felt sturdy after Kelly's flirtation with the Eagles and the Manti Te'o nonsense. That's not the case today.
Who ends up with more passing yards: CJ Carr/Kenny Minchey in 12 games in 2025 or Riley Leonard in 16 games in 2024? — Tommy R.
To put Leonard's 178.8 passing yards per game in perspective, that ranked No. 89 nationally last season. If Carr/Minchey produce the same total of 2,861 yards during the regular season, it would amount to 238.4 yards per game, which would have ranked No. 36 nationally, between quarterbacks from Western Kentucky and Hawaii.
Point being, we're not talking about some transcendental passing performance if Carr or Minchey do in the regular season what Leonard did in the entire season.
So, give me Carr and/or Minchey to better Leonard's passing statistics. They both have more arm talent and a better receiver room, plus a better offensive line in front of them.
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As for Leonard's 184 carries for 906 yards and 17 rushing touchdowns … that might be harder to replicate.
Is there a new rivalry for Notre Dame that would interest you? — Peter B.
This sounds like a great question for next week's fan survey.
Not that I'm chasing USC off the schedule, but the Clemson series somewhat fills this slot if it comes to that. Creating new rivalries rarely seems to work … yet Irish versus Tigers somehow does. If USC dropped off the schedule as an every-season opponent, I'd run the slot into a higher-end Power 2 rotating series. Step back from rivalry and lean into novelty. Yes, I'd rather see USC every season, but what if Notre Dame swapped that over 10 years of home-and-homes with Oregon, LSU, Iowa, Auburn and Washington?
(Top photo of Kenny Minchey: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)