Starting Debut For Steve Angeli At Notre Dame Is Approaching

Sophomore quarterback Steve Angeli’s time has come at Notre Dame. The New Jersey native will make his first career start in the final game of the season when the Fighting Irish take the field in the Sun Bowl against Oregon State. Notre Dame’s season long backup to veteran Sam Hartman gets his shot in less than two weeks after Hartman announced that he will opt out of the bowl to prepare for the NFL Draft.

While Angeli is yet to start a game, the backup garnered his share of passing experience in six blowout wins this season. He is 19 for 25 (76%) for 272 yards withy four touchdowns and one interception to date in 2023.

"I think what Steve has done all year has been tremendous in terms of building confidence in the coaching staff,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said of his new starter. "As a backup, you’re getting important reps in practice and obviously the opportunities he’s had in the games he’s done a tremendous job. We have a lot of confidence in Steve Angeli and with (fellow quarterback) Kenny (Minchey).”

Minchey served as the No. 3 quarterback all season, but the freshman is elevated to No. 2 on the depth chart for the Sun Bowl. He played in mop-up duty in wins over Tennessee State and Pittsburgh this fall.

"He’ll be able to get some meaningful reps, too,” Freeman gauged. "There’s not a plan to play two quarterbacks. We’re going to go with Steve and we want to make sure we give him the best opportunity to succeed. So, there’s a lot of confidence (from) everybody in our football program that Steve Angeli can lead us to where we need to go.”

Angeli’s most extensive experience this season came in the home-opening 56-3 win over Tennessee State. He played the entire second half after Hartman helped the Irish to a 35-3 halftime lead against the overmatched FCS opponent. Angeli was 8 for 11 for a career best 130 yards and two touchdowns in the victory.

But while he played in those six Irish wins, none of his snaps came in high leverage situations. Notre Dame won those games by an average of 39.6 points.

Angeli’s first start will also be unique because he will be playing behind a new offensive line. Starting tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher have both declared for the NFL Draft and have opted out of the bowl game. Zeke Correll, who started the first 10 games at center before an injury, has transferred to NC State and right guard Rocco Spindler also saw his season end prematurely due to a knee injury.

The new faces on offense lend to a balancing act when evaluating Angeli in his starting debut.

"I think we have to be aware of, you know, you are going to have two new tackles out there. You’re going to have two new running backs in the backfield,” Freeman explained. "Audric’s (Estime) not playing. So, we’re understanding of that. Our thing is more than evaluation in putting him in a position to try to have success and that’s our job as coaches. We’ll get to the evaluation after the game. What we want to do is make sure we’re putting Steve in a position to have success as our quarterback as we go into this game.”

True freshman Charles Jagusah is expected to also make his first career start at left tackle. Aamil Wagner and Tosh Baker will battle for the right tackle nod during bowl practice. Ashton Craig and Billy Schrauth are expected to start at center and right guard, respectively, while Pat Coogan will start his 13th game of the season at left guard.