Reviewing the Redshirts is an off-season project meant to resurrect discussion about the 2022 Notre Dame freshmen who retained a year of eligibility and discuss their possible impact in 2023 and beyond. The Fighting Irish were able to redshirt 17 players this past season while 1 player medically retired (Joey Tanona) and another player has transferred already to Syracuse (Jayden Bellamy).

Today we’ll take a look at a quarterback who turned a lot of heads during last year’s spring game but finds himself in a tough position heading into his redshirt freshman season.

QB Steve Angeli

Hometown: Oradell, New Jersey
Height: 6-2 3/8
Weight: 211

247Sports Composite Ranking: 4-star, No. 21 QB, No. 4 NJ, No. 365 National, 0.8962 score

18 Stripes Grade: 84.0

Murtaugh’s Blurb from the Class Grade:

Good size with an upper-body frame capable of adding a lot more muscle. He throws a really tight spiral with incredible consistency. Nice compact, over-the-top throwing motion. Angeli’s accuracy looks quite good on the short-to-intermediate throws. Decent enough athlete who probably won’t escape a ton of pressure in the pocket but occasionally runs for a first down when needed. There’s potential to become a really steady and smart pro-style-ish pocket passer. Obviously, people don’t get too excited about steadiness. I don’t see many traits that make me think Angeli is a multi-year starter at Notre Dame.

Angeli enrolled early at Notre Dame in January 2022 without a ton of fanfare. Given that he was a distant 3rd-string throughout practices and into the season not much was expected of him while Tyler Buchner and Drew Pyne shared the majority of 1st-team and varsity reps.

However, in the brief glimpses witnessed during practices Angeli picked up quite a bit of praise from the media and certainly did his best not to bring his stock down at all during the Blue-Gold Game.

Need at Position: Low

Now, the hard part.

As we discussed in the Sam Hartman grad transfer scouting report it’s not Tyler Buchner who has to worry that much about his future compared to Angeli. The eligibility clock for Peanut Butter starts ticking this season and the addition of Hartman really pushes the New Jersey native down the pecking order and keeps him away from valuable reps in practice.

Expected Spot on the 2023 Depth Chart: 3rd String

There was a minute there where things seemed to be trending toward Angeli being a bit of a surprise from the 2022 recruiting class with whispers that maybe he’d be the long-term future for the Irish. Most didn’t expect Drew Pyne to stick around (he did not) and whether one is a believer in Tyler Buchner or not, the reality is he’s been hurt a lot in his career.

You didn’t have to squint too hard to see a path opening up for Angeli to ascend to the starter’s role.

Then during the spring game, he looked really sharp going 11 of 13 for 180 yards with 1 touchdown through the air and finished things off with this walk-off rushing touchdown to win it for the gold team:

Awesome play in the fun but meaningless spring game. 

While he ended up never attempting a pass, Angeli was a beneficiary of Buchner’s injury by picking up more practice reps with the varsity and seeing action in a couple games this past season. All in all, 2022 was a pretty successful year for him.

Unfortunately, Angeli looks to be having another season where he’s getting scraps in practice and now has Kenny Minchey on campus for spring with CJ Carr coming in less than a year, too. He’s effectively being squeezed in on the depth chart by older and younger players.

In the vast majority of situations across the country, Angeli would be looking to transfer as soon as possible. For now, Angeli seems patient enough to wait through another spring practice. History tell us he will transfer at some point without a clearer path to playing but history also tells us things can get weird very quickly at Notre Dame and that playing time may come quicker than expected.