Notre Dame brought in their own grad transfer this off-season in an attempt to win it all. Isn’t that the goal every year? Yeah well, now Sam Hartman is in town. He’ll be working with new offensive coordinator Gerad Parker which will bring further intrigue to this off-season.
Who will the Irish opponents be bringing to the table at quarterback? Today, we’ll look at the first half of the Notre Dame schedule.
BOLD denotes returning starter
Game #1 Navy
Tai Lavatai, Senior
Xavier Arline, Senior
Tedros Gleaton, Sophomore
Blake Horvath, Sophomore
King Benford, Sophomore
Braxton Woodson, Freshman
Robert Jones III, Freshman
Understanding Navy’s recruiting and roster is a task that is dark and full of terrors. Both because their recruiting isn’t traditional in any sense without scholarship limits and players will pop up on their roster out of nowhere. It’s also complicated by their use of the Naval Academy Prep School where players can be stashed for a while before starting their eligibility for the Middies.
We do know that rising sophomores Tedros Gleaton and Blake Horvath were moved up to varsity in 2022. Navy also saw starting quarterback Tai Lavatai tear his knee in late October. Will he be healthy for 2023? If not, Xavier Arline has offered plenty of experience with 1,016 total yards since 2020 and would likely get the job against Notre Dame in Ireland.
New offensive coordinator Grant Chestnut threw the ball a little bit more (7.1 more pass attempts per game) at Kennesaw State last year compared to Navy and we’ll see if that gets incorporated more in the Middies offense, or if that necessitates a different type of quarterback.
Game #2 Tennessee State
Draylen Ellis, Senior
Deveon Bryant, 5th-year Senior
Chayil Garnett, Redshirt Junior
Edwin Rhodes III, Junior
Demeatric Crenshaw, Junior
Ryder Hagan, Freshman
Notre Dame’s first modern adventure against a FCS team features Tennessee State with a lot of quarterbacks. They signed Nashville product Ryder Hagan for 2023 as well as bringing in Youngstown State transfer Demeatric Crenshaw who ran for 705 yards and threw for 1,338 yards with 19 total touchdowns over his career for the Penguins.
Ellis is lightning quick but lacks size and consistent passing.Â
The Tigers brought in Austin Peay transfer Draylen Ellis prior to last season and he started 10 games with 1,807 passing yards, 12 total touchdowns, and 6 interceptions in 2022. At 6-0 and 175 pounds he’s quite small but extremely quick in Tennessee State’s run-first spread offense. One interesting note is that TSU gave up 37 sacks on just 317 pass attempts and Ellis is a very raw passer with an inconsistent delivery.
Game #3 NC State
Brennan Armstrong, 6th-year Senior
MJ Morris, Redshirt Freshman
Ben Finley, Redshirt Junior
Lex Thomas, Freshman
Ethan Rhodes, Redshirt Freshman
Devin Leary started for the Wolfpack for 2+ seasons but transferred to Kentucky for 2023. NC State brought in offensive coordinator Robert Anae and he’ll reunite with Brennan Armstrong from their days at Virginia after the 6th-year senior is finishing his last year of eligibility in Raleigh. So, Armstrong isn’t their returning starter but a returning starter in the sport.
Leary missed a ton of time in 2022 which allowed MJ Morris to play and perform pretty well before injuries took him off the field. The older Ben Finley stepped up and started the last 3 games of the season. NC State also added preferred walk-on Ethan Rhodes from the 2022 class and have in-state 3-star Lex Thomas coming in the summer.
Game #4 Central Michigan
Jase Bauer, Redshirt Sophomore
Bert Emanuel Jr, Redshirt Freshman
Tyler Pape, Redshirt Junior
Tyler Jefferson, Freshman
Hollywood, Florida product Daniel Richards had started the bulk of the last 3 seasons for Central Michigan and transferred to FAU this off-season where he’ll reunite with new Owls offensive coordinator Charlie Frye who was the OC at CMU when Richardson was a freshman.
Head coach Jim McElwain did rotate quarterbacks and Jase Bauer picked up quite a bit of snaps in 2022 running for 312 yards on 53 carries but also not so super impressive throwing 5 interceptions on just 59 pass attempts. Bert Emanuel also got into the rotation and only threw 8 passes but ran for an impressive 496 yards on 67 carries–including an insane 293-yard game against Buffalo.
Bobby Petrino’s younger brother Paul Petrino will be entering his 2nd year as offensive coordinator with the Chippewas coming of a season ranked 113th in offense according to FEI.
Game #5 Ohio State
Kyle McCord, Junior
Devin Brown, Redshirt Freshman
Tristan Gebbia, 7th-year Senior
Lincoln Kienholz, Freshman
The Buckeyes are moving out of the C.J. Stroud era after the quarterback threw for 8,123 yards and 85 touchdowns in 2 years of starting and are looking at the shakiest situation under center they’ve faced in quite a long time. At least for their extremely high standards.
Kyle McCord was the no. 28 overall recruit in the 2021 class and offers promise but hasn’t the seen the field much with 58 pass attempts and burning 2 years of eligibility over 12 games played. Devin Brown was the no. 43 overall recruit in 2022 and is expected to push McCord for the starting job. This is what a shaky QB room looks at Ohio State.
Oregon State transfer Tristan Gebbia somehow still has eligibility and comes to Columbus this off-season to offer a veteran presence. Incoming freshman Lincoln Kienholz is a unicorn as one of the highest rated football players to ever come out of the state of South Dakota but for Buckeyes standards is merely the no. 188 overall player from the 2023 class and was a late flip from Washington.
Game #6 Duke
Riley Leonard, Junior
Henry Belin IV, Redshirt Freshman
Grayson Loftis, Freshman
Mike Elko will be coming into his 2nd season in Durham bringing back junior Riley Leonard who took nearly every snap in 2022 in his first full season as the Blue Devils starter.
Sneaky good Leonard?
Leonard qualifies as an underrated star in the ACC. He finished 4th in the conference in passing yards and 5th in passer rating while chipping in 699 rushing yards, the 5th most for a quarterback in the nation and 3rd most among Power 5 quarterbacks. Backing him up will be 2022 signee and Bronx native Henry Belin and incoming freshman Grayson Loftis from South Carolina, both 3-stars.
I guess we’ll see how McCord looks by late September, but potentially having a fairly decent edge at QB for once could be so clutch for Notre Dame this season in that type of a matchup.
McCord is going to be throwing to the best pass catching group in the country. 2 WRs who are almost certainly going to be top 15 picks, a 3rd WR who was the #3 recruit in his class, a TE who is likely to go in the top 3 rounds of the draft, and an RB who might go in the first round of the draft. Against the soft start to their schedule, McCord is almost assuredly going to look like a Heisman contender coming into our game. Hopefully having ND as his first real test of his college career will rattle him a bit, and we will make him pay for any mistakes he might make.
There’s a good chance McCord does impress, but just because tOSU has really great skill players doesn’t mean that their offense always is great. Even CJ Stroud threw for 76 yards against Northwestern last year and 154 vs Rutgers. I’m not so bullish that a surefire new starter is 100% going to look dominant, though you are completely right that their schedule before ND couldn’t be easier. Penciling him in as the next big thing is a little much for me, even if admittedly he is setup to have every opportunity to look good.
Since we’re talking opposing QBs, O/U on interceptions for the first 6 games? We had 10 picks last year, and I’m optimistic, so 6.5 and I’ll take the over.
I’d guess Morrison 2, other corners 2, safeties 2, LB’s 1. I think offenses won’t test Morrison much but his ability to single cover will allow the rest of the secondary to be opportunistic.
Wow, that would be a lot. It’s possible, probably gotta get the bulk against Tennessee St and CMU. Other than Morrison I don’t think the defense has guys who are capable of making enough plays on the ball, but the level of competition is fairly low for a handful of games, so who knows.Probably should be 7+ INT’s in six games, but not sure I’d stake a lot on that.
In regards to Tristan Gebbia, 7th-year Senior, let’s hope this is how he feels after the Irish beat OSU:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjIH1jdx2_A
LFG Joe Rudolph taking a title cut to come to Notre Dame. Big win. Way to go Marcus and everyone else.
I wanted Rudolph, receipt: https://18stripes.com/notre-dame-offensive-line-coach-harry-hiestand-retires-again/#comment-45940
Run run Rudolph
Wisconsin running stats per game every year under Rudolph
2015: 150.3 ypg 3.8 ypc 2.1 TD
2016: 203.1 ypg 4.4 ypc 2.2 TD
2017: 223.2 ypg 5.0 ypc 2.0 TD
2018: 273.4 ypg 6.2 ypc 2.5 TD
2019: 233.7 ypc 5.4 ypc 2.7 TD
2020: 164.6 ypg 3.9 ypc 1.9 TD
2021: 211.1 ypg 4.9 ypc 2.0 TD
left there to attempt to fix the unbelievable nightmare that was Justin Fuente recruiting at VT (true freshmen starting/in the two deep and DLinemen at OL)
Solid hire. With the exception of Parker’s lack of playcalling experience, I’m pretty happy with how the offensive staff turned out.