Listed measurements: 6-foot-1 ⅝, 215 pounds.
2023-24 year, eligibility: An early-enrolled freshman, Minchey has all four seasons of eligibility remaining.
Depth Chart: The spring competition between Tyler Buchner and Sam Hartman was somewhat to the detriment of Kenny Minchey and sophomore Steve Angeli. Both the meaningful reps and the more proven targets were devoted to Buchner and Hartman; Minchey and Angeli had the leftovers. This preseason should give the latter duo a truer chance to compete to be Hartman’s backup now that Buchner is fighting to be the starter at Alabama.
Recruiting: Notre Dame chased a list of quarterbacks in the 2023 recruiting cycle. As those possibilities dwindled, the Irish turned to Minchey, then a Pittsburgh commit. The No. 12 pro-style quarterback and No. 209 overall prospect, per rivals.com, Minchey backed off a sixth-month Panthers pledge to flip to Notre Dame a week later. That may make him sound like an afterthought, but the Irish had made a run at him earlier in the cycle but were pushed away by Minchey’s steadfast feelings about Pittsburgh. It was only when Notre Dame was that much more desperate that it got the Tennessee product to waver.
RELATED READING: Notre Dame finally adds a QB to its recruiting class of 2023, landing former Pitt commit Kenny Minchey
QUOTES
Minchey quickly struck new Irish quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli as a veteran in his approach, something that will be needed if Minchey rises up the depth chart or is forced into a more prominent role by injury.
“Kenny is super even-keel,” Guidugli said in late March. “Super smart. He obviously has arm talent. Kenny’s pulse, if his baseline pulse is 60, Kenny’s doesn’t variate very much. He’s like between 61 and 59. Not too high, not too low. He understands it’s about getting in there, getting reps and catching up to the speed of the game.”
WHAT WAS SAID WHEN MINCHEY SIGNED IN DECEMBER
“A shoulder injury limited Minchey this fall and then knocked him out of the playoffs, so finding health with that will be the first priority for both him and the Irish. That should not be a lasting concern, though, given he is still expected to play in the All-American Bowl in just a couple weeks.
“Deep accuracy and underrated mobility raise Minchey’s ceiling as high as any currently on the Notre Dame roster. …
“It should still be expected that the Irish will land a transfer in the next few weeks. Maybe that is Texas’ Hudson Card. Maybe it is Wake Forest’s Sam Hartman. Maybe it is someone else not yet floating to the top of speculation. Whomever it is, he will be the immediate presumptive starter in 2023.
“Then comes Buchner and Angeli. All of which is to say, Minchey should have a full year to develop with little else to worry about.”
2023 OUTLOOK
Every ounce of logic expects Angeli to be Hartman’s backup this season. He has experience compared to Minchey, even if none of it came on Saturdays. And he has impressed around South Bend for 18 months. Angeli has outperformed his recruiting, at least in practices.
In that case, it will be a season split between the scout team and the third string for Minchey. He cannot simply work every practice on the scout team — where he would get more reps in total — because if Hartman or Angeli so much as badly sprains an ankle, then Minchey will be one play away from leading Gerad Parker’s first Irish offense.
With just some modicum of health in the quarterbacks room, Minchey should see minimal action this season while gearing up for what could be an exciting quarterback competition next spring.
Freshman to freshman.#NotreDame’s Kenny Minchey to Jaden Greathouse.
— Irish247 (@NotreDame247) March 30, 2023
Going to see this a lot in the future ☘️ pic.twitter.com/uMfllAPzIP
DOWN THE ROAD
This space steers away from focusing on recruiting. There is plenty of actual college football to discuss.
As a result, most “Notre Dame gets the letter” articles in mid-December take a quick look at a player’s overall outline, an attempt at a comprehensive catch-up. Rarely do they speculate about a player coming from further down the pipeline who could quickly steal playing time.
But quarterback is a different position. Each team plays just one. There are only 133 starting jobs at the top level of college football.
And the differences between the Irish quarterback recruiting in the 2023 cycle and in the 2024 cycle could not be more stark, so to pull from that mid-December writeup:
“Next year’s recruiting cycle should not have the same quarterback worries as this one did — a chase that saw the Irish work through a long pursuit of recent UCLA commit Dante Moore before opening up the board to a wider array of possibilities, including Austin Novosad who flipped his commitment on Wednesday from Baylor to Oregon, recently spurned by Moore.
“Consensus four-star CJ Carr is already committed to Notre Dame and has shown no signs of wavering.
“Unless Minchey quickly establishes himself as a gem, there will be widespread anticipation Carr may leapfrog him in the depth chart. That is unfair to both Minchey’s potential and Carr’s development, but such are the habits of fans watching quarterbacks.”
RELATED READING: Notre Dame lands No. 3 QB in 2024 class, beating out Michigan for Lloyd Carr’s grandson
An early look at Notre Dame’s seven commits in the class of 2024, including QB CJ Carr
Minchey needs to impress anyone he can this fall so as to have as much of an edge on Carr as he can manage. The two should be each be given a chance, along with Angeli, to replace Hartman after this season. Perhaps the Irish coaching staff is uninspired by Angeli and Minchey this preseason and fall, and does not want to risk a freshman leading the way, so it chases another transfer in the winter.
But even in that scenario, Minchey will want to stay a step ahead of Carr for 2025 thoughts.
Happy 18th birthday K E N N Y
— T. Taylor Minchey (@tt_minchey) February 18, 2023
[…quick road trip to hug @kenny_minchey personally!!] pic.twitter.com/z4C8HgTSNc
NOTRE DAME 99-TO-0
The summer countdown begins anew, Rylie Mills to Deion Colzie
No. 99 Rylie Mills, senior defensive tackle, moving back inside from end
No. 98 Devan Houstan, early-enrolled four-star defensive tackle
No. 97 Gabriel Rubio, junior defensive tackle, one of three Irish DTs with notable experience
No. 95 Tyson Ford, sophomore defensive tackle, up 30 pounds from a year ago
No. 93 Armel Mukam, incoming freshman defensive end, former Stanford commit
No. 92 Aidan Keanaaina, a senior defensive tackle now ‘fully healthy’ after a 2022 torn ACL
No. 91 Aiden Gobaira, sophomore defensive end, former four-star recruit
No. 88 Mitchell Evans, the next starter at ‘TE U
No. 87 Cooper Flanagan, incoming freshman tight end, four-star recruit
No. 84 Kevin Bauman, senior tight end coming off a torn ACL
No. 83 Jayden Thomas, junior receiver, probable No. 1 target in 2023
No. 79 Tosh Baker, senior tackle, again a backup but next year ...
No. 78 Pat Coogan, junior interior offensive lineman
No. 77 Ty Chan, sophomore offensive tackle, former four-star recruit
No. 76 Joe Alt, first-team All-American left tackle
No. 75 Sullivan Absher, incoming freshman offensive lineman
No. 74 Billy Schrauth, sophomore left guard, likely starter
No. 73 Andrew Kristofic, fifth-year right guard, likely starter
No. 72 Sam Pendelton, early-enrolled freshman offensive lineman
No. 70 Ashton Craig, sophomore interior offensive lineman
No. 68 Michael Carmody, senior offensive lineman
No. 65 Michael Vinson, sixth-year long snapper, four-year starter
No. 64 Joe Otting, incoming freshman offensive lineman, four-star recruit
No. 59 Aamil Wagner, sophomore offensive tackle
No. 56 Charles Jagusah, incoming freshman offensive lineman, four-star recruit
No. 56 Howard Cross, fifth-year defensive tackle, multi-year starter
No. 55 Chris Terek, incoming freshman offensive lineman, four-star recruit
No. 54 Blake Fisher, junior right tackle, second-year starter
No. 52 Zeke Correll, fifth-year center, third-year starter
No. 51 Boubacar Traore, incoming freshman defensive end, four-star recruit
No. 50 Rocco Spindler, junior offensive guard
No. 47 Jason Onye, junior defensive tackle on the verge of playing time
No. 44 Junior Tuihalamaka, sophomore defensive end, former linebacker
No. 42 Nolan Ziegler, sophomore linebacker, Irish legacy
No. 41 Donovan Hinish, sophomore defensive tackle following in his brother’s footsteps
No. 40 Joshua Burnham, sophomore linebacker-turned-Vyper end
No. 38 Davis Sherwood, junior fullback/H-back, former walk-on
No. 34 Drayk Bowen, early-enrolled freshman linebacker, baseball infielder
No. 32 Spencer Shrader, South Florida transfer kicker
No. 31 Nana Osafo-Mensah, fifth-year defensive end
No. 29 Christian Gray, early-enrolled freshman cornerback coming off a knee injury
No. 29 Matt Salerno, sixth-year receiver, former walk-on
No. 27 JD Bertrand, fifth-year linebacker, third-year starter, possible captain
No. 25 Preston Zinter, early-enrolled freshman linebacker, subtle recruiting win
No. 24 Jack Kiser, fifth-year linebacker, third-year starter, most efficient defender
No. 24 Jadarian Price, sophomore RB, reportedly recovered from an Achilles injury
No. 23 Jaiden Ausberry, early-enrolled freshman linebacker, four-star recruit
No. 22 Ben Minich, early-enrolled freshman safety, four-star recruit
No. 22 Jeremiyah Love, incoming freshman running back, four-star recruit
No. 21 Adon Shuler, early-enrolled freshman safety coming off shoulder surgery
No. 20 Benjamin Morrison, sophomore cornerback, preseason All-American
No. 19 Jaden Greathouse, early-enrolled freshman receiver, Blue-Gold Game star
No. 18 Steve Angeli, sophomore quarterback, competing for the backup role
No. 18 Chance Tucker, junior cornerback
No. 17 Brenan Vernon, incoming freshman defensive end, four-star recruit
No. 17 Rico Flores Jr., early-enrolled freshman receiver, four-star recruit
No. 16 Micah Bell, incoming freshman cornerback, speedy four-star recruit
No. 15 Ryan Barnes, junior cornerback
No. 14 Bryce McFerson, sophomore punter facing a challenge for a second straight year
No. 14 Braylon James, early-enrolled freshman receiver, four-star recruit
No. 13 Holden Staes, sophomore tight end, up 20 pounds in a year
No. 13 Thomas Harper, Oklahoma State graduate transfer safety/nickel back
No. 12 Penn State RB transfer Devyn Ford gives Notre Dame newly-needed backfield depth, experience
No. 12 Jordan Botelho, senior Vyper defensive end
No. 11 KK Smith, incoming freshman receiver, speedster
No. 11 Ramon Henderson, senior safety
No. 10 Sam Hartman, Wake Forest graduate transfer quarterback, QB1
No. 9 Eli Raridon, sophomore tight end coming off a second ACL tear
No. 4 Rhode Island transfer safety Antonio Carter gives Notre Dame desperately needed backline depth
