If you missed it, check out the first part of this series where we looked at the quarterback situations at Navy, Tennessee State, NC State, Central Michigan, Ohio State, and Duke. Today, we’ll take a look at the back half of the 2023 Fighting Irish schedule featuring the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, plus a few other familiar names.

BOLD denotes returning starter

Game #7 Louisville

Jack Plummer, 6th-year Senior
Brock Domann, 6th-year Senior
Evan Conley, Redshirt Junior
Khalib Johnson, Redshirt Freshman
Pierce Clarkson, Freshman

New head coach Jeff Brohm is back in Louisville where he played in college and was an assistant for 6 seasons following his recent 6-year stint as the leader at Purdue. He’ll head into 2023 with the Cardinals moving on from long-time starter Malik Cunningham who totalted nearly 13,000 yards in his career.

Right now, Louisville is carrying decent depth despite 2021 commit TJ Lewis transferring to Georgia Southern (where he now plays wide receiver) and 2020 commit Tee Webb transferring to Southern Miss.

California transfer Jack Plummer comes to Louisville after spending 2018-21 with Brohm at Purdue. It’s presumed Plummer will win the quarterback job this off-season.

Former JUCO transfer Brock Domann remains on campus after picking up 4 starts last year while Cunningham was banged up. Former 3-star recruits Evan Conley and Khalib Johnson fill out the depth chart with 4-star recruit Pierce Clarkson from St. John Bosco in California coming in as an early enrollee.

Game #8 USC

Caleb Williams, Junior
Miller Moss, Redshirt Sophomore
Malachi Nelson, Freshman
Jake Jensen, Junior

This should be the last year in college for Caleb Williams who is marked to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and is hoping to repeat as Heisman winner. He finished 2023 4th in passing yards per game, 5th in yards per attempt, 5th in passer rating, while leading the country with 42 touchdown passes. Williams also ran for 382 yards and 10 scores.

Former BYU commit and JUCO transfer Jake Jensen brings up the rear on the depth chart while a pair of highly touted recruits are biding their time behind Williams.

Miller Moss is a former top 100 recruit who saw a small amount of action in 5 games in 2022. A year after taking Caleb Williams from Oklahoma, the Trojans also flipped Sooner commit Malachi Nelson who finished as the No. 12 overall player in the 2023 class. He had shoulder surgery in December but participated in spring practice with USC.

Game #9 Pittsburgh

Phil Jurkovec, 5th-year Senior
Nate Yarnell, Redshirt Sophomore
Christian Veilleux, Redshirt Sophomore
Ty Dieffenbach, Freshman

Following Kenny Pickett turning into Dan Marino for 2021 the Panthers sought out the portal last season for one year with Kedon Slovis who was more Dan Orlovsky than Marino. Veteran backup Nick Patti saw some action in 2022 as well, but decided to go professional in something other than sports this off-season. Last off-season, Pitt also lost 2019 recruit Davis Beville to Oklahoma.

School no. 3 for Jurkovec.

As such, they dipped back into the portal again to bring in former Notre Dame and Boston College gunslinger Phil Jurkovec. Pitt also took former 3-star recruit Christian Veilleux this off-season after he spent 2 seasons at Penn State.

Former low 3-star recruit Nate Yarnell saw the field a bit last year while 3-star freshman Ty Dieffenbach enrolls this summer after flipping late last cycle from UNLV.

Game #10 Clemson

Cade Klubnik, Sophomore
Hunter Helms, Redshirt Junior
Chris Vizzina, Freshman
Paul Tyson, 5th-year Senior

Clemson is heading full speed into the Cade Klubnik era with new offensive coordinator Garrett Riley coming over following a successful season at TCU and 2 seasons at SMU before that. The former 5-star and top quarterback in the 2022 class, Klubnik played a decent amount last year in the decaying DJ Uiagalelei era (he transferred to Oregon State this off-season) and full has the keys to the Clemson offense now.

The backup situation is a little foggy right now. Nominally it goes to former low 3-star recruit Hunter Helms, although incoming freshman Chris Vizzina (he enrolled during the spring) was a top 100 recruit in this past cycle and probably moves into this role eventually. Clemson also brought in Paul Tyson as a transfer this off-season. He was a former low 4-star recruit for Alabama (2019-21) and spent last season with Arizona State.

Game #11 Wake Forest

Mitch Griffis, Redshirt Junior
Michael Kern, 5th-year Senior
Santino Marucci, Redshirt Sophomore
Charlie Gilliman, Freshman

Wake Forest has officially moved on from Sam Hartman and will travel to Notre Dame to play their former quarterback on Senior Day. Last year, Mitch Griffis was the primary backup although Michael Kern also saw a small amount of playing time. Coming out of spring practice, it appears Griffis will lock down the starting job. He’s really small at 5’11” and 192 pounds so let’s see how that goes over a full season and if he can make it to this late game against the Irish.

Santino Marucci, like most of the Demon Deacons, was a modest recruit. Incoming freshman Charlie Gilliman did not enroll early and arrives this summer. Wake’s 2022 quarterback Brett Griffis (younger brother of Mitch) was on campus for a year before transferring to James Madison this off-season. Their 2021 quarterback Billy Edwards transferred to Maryland last summer and 2020 quarterback Cody Cater is now playing safety.

Game #12 Stanford

Ari Patu, Redshirt Sophomore
Ashton Daniels, Sophomore
Myles Jackson, Freshman
Beau Nelson, Redshirt Junior
Charlie Mirer, Redshirt Freshman

This looks like the weakest quarterback room for Stanford since 2012 in the post-Andrew Luck fallout as starting quarterback Tanner McKee left early and was a 6th round pick by the Eagles. Long-term, it looks much worse. The Cardinal also have the least amount of returning production among Power 5 teams headed into 2023, that seems fine!

They will be working under new head coach Troy Taylor in a much more fast-paced but still run heavy offense. While at Sacramento State, Taylor put up some big offensive numbers and rushing totals.

The lanky Patu is expected to win the starting job. 

Both Ari Patu and Ashton Daniels saw the field a little bit last year with Patu looking to grab the starting job coming out of spring. Neither have thrown the ball that much (15 combined attempts in 2022) but there’s some athleticism from these guys that Taylor can use in their new system. Daniels particularly showed some promise as a runner last year with 156 yards on 25 carries as a true freshman.

High 3-star recruit Myles Jackson arrives this summer from Long Beach, California and Stanford has Charlie Mirer on their roster, the walk-on son of former Irish quarterback Rick Mirer.