Steve Angeli Is Taking Advantage Of His Opportunities

Notre Dame quarterback Steve Angeli had been out of public view for a while prior to last week’s reappearance against Pittsburgh. The sophomore from New Jersey has played in four games this season, but prior to this past weekend's action against Pittsburgh he hadn’t seen the field since a late cameo appearance on Sept. 16 against. Central Michigan.

Angeli led the offense to a pair of touchdown drives in the final quarter to put the finishing touches on the lopsided Fighting Irish victory. He wasn’t just a handoff machine like he was in the two games he saw action as a true freshman last year. The Westfield, N.J. native was 6-7 for 92 passing yards against the Panthers and he caught the eye of Irish head coach Marcus Freeman as well.

"He had a great performance with his plays in there,” Freeman said of Angeli this week. "I think he was almost a hundred percent, just talking with (quarterbacks) Coach (Gino) Guidugli after the game. Stephen is a guy that we have a lot of confidence in and to see the way he performed, the decisions he made. The one touchdown ball to Cooper (Flanagan), he made a really difficult throw look easy. To be able to rollout to your left and set up and throw the ball across your body to Cooper, that was a challenging throw. 

"But we have a lot of confidence in Steve Angeli and it’s a credit to the way he prepares, right and I think he’ll be the first one to tell you that Sam (Hartman) has helped him enhance his preparation process," continued Freeman. "But when he gets the chance to go perform he does it and I’m really proud of him and really glad that, man he had the performance that he had.

Angeli worked the entire second half earlier this season in Notre Dame’s 56-3 blowout of FCS Tennessee State. He was 8 for 11 for 130 yards and his first two career touchdown passes in that game. His overall numbers for the season are 16 of 21 (76%) for 236 yards and three touchdown passes.

There is a decision looming at the end of the season that Angeli and freshman Irish quarterback with be part of. Will Freeman, offensive coordinator Gerad Parker and Guidugli let Angeli and Kenny Minchey battle for next year’s starting job in the spring and see what incoming commit CJ Carr can contribute or do they bring in another transfer quarterback?

Freeman has already indicated that all options, including bringing in a transfer, are under consideration and that they’ll dig deeper into that conversation during the second bye week of the season next week. But he also said this week that Angeli playing in higher leverage game situations this season would benefit his evaluation.

"If we have the opportunity to get Steve or any of those other guys in the game we should,” Freeman indicated. "I mean, meaningful versus an opponent, it’s a lot different than just practice where you’re not going to get hit in practice. So, any time we can do that, we’re definitely going to do it. Now, the number one objective is to make sure we win, and we put our team in a position to be successful and that can be in multiple different ways. But more importantly, if we have a chance to put Steve or any of those guys in a game, we definitely want to.”

This year’s transfer portal windows run from Dec. 4-Jan. 2 and from April 16-30.