Notre Dame 3-2-1: Three numbers, two questions and one Steve Angeli prediction
With the NFL Draft fast approaching, spring football moving into its home stretch, and the transfer portal already taking a bite out of the first men’s basketball team that head coach Micah Shrewsberry constructed at Notre Dame, it’s time to reload the 3-2-1, a column made popular by the late Lou Somogyi.
3 Numbers
.13 — The fraction of a second that former Irish tailback Audric Estimé shaved off of his 40-yard dash time between his NFL combine attempt on March 2, and his pro-day showing on March 21. Estimé ran a 4.71 at the Combine, the slowest among the 21 draft hopefuls at his position, while his pro-day time would’ve slotted him 17th out of the 21.
4 — The number of former Irish football players who continued their professional pursuits last weekend when the United Football League (UFL) opened its inaugural season. They are OT Jarron Jones (Memphis Showboats); WR Kevin Austin Jr. (Birmingham Stallions); TE Alizé Mack (San Antonio Brahmas); and DL Jamir Jones (San Antonio Brahmas).
14 — No. 14 is the ranking Notre Dame holds in the latest 2025 On3.com Blue Chip recruiting ratings. The Blue Chip rankings are a measure of the number of four- and five-star players a team has compared to its total number of recruits. Notre Dame’s 19-man class — which ranks No. 5 nationally — features 11 four-star players and 8 three-stars for a 58-percent rating.
2 Questions
What can we expect following the torch passing from Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick to Pete Bevacqua?
Early returns suggest that we can expect a firmer financial commitment to finding top coaching candidates that many previous Notre Dame administrations rarely provided.
And that evidence begins with the hiring last December of new offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock.
Bevacqua was an understudy under Swarbrick at the time of the Denbrock’s hire. But it’s hard to imagine that the former didn’t have a heavy hand in this decision.
Swarbrick, Bevacqua and the Notre Dame administration realized it couldn’t botch this hire. So, instead of bickering over buyouts and following the traditional Notre Dame way or underpaying its assistant coaches, it rolled out the Brinks truck to make sure and get the guy head coach Marcus Freeman wanted most.
And, about three months following the Denbrock hire, Notre Dame spilled the coffers again — to a lesser extent — to keep and promote Chad Bowden to General Manager of the football program, another hire that Freeman fiercely supported.
Official terms of Denbrock’s deal were not released but industry website FootballScoop.com, reported that Denbrock, 60, was lured away from LSU with a four-year contract worth about $9 million — more than $2 million a year — not including bowl game bonuses, playoff payouts, performance benchmarks and other incentives.
If true, this contract makes Denbrock one of the highest-paid coordinators in the country, and it would mark the longest and largest contract Notre Dame has ever given to an assistant coach.
More importantly, in what could be considered the biggest hire since Bevacqua, 51, came on board as an understudy, this move also demonstrated a change in course and a needed spare-no-expense financial commitment that puts Notre Dame on par with the elite programs all over the country.
Given the climate of NCAA men’s basketball, can Notre Dame someday return to 20-plus win seasons and consistent NCAA appearances?
Never say never, but given the university mission and how far the Irish need to climb, it ain’t gonna be easy.
On Monday, Irish freshman forward Carey Booth announced he was entering the transfer portal, becoming the third 2023-24 Irish player to do so since the portal opened on March 18.
Booth, the No. 59 rated player in the 2023 recruiting class according to the On3.com Industry Ranking, is keeping his options open. But with Illinois, Penn State, Wisconsin and several other solid schools already courting him, it seems unlikely Booth returns to Notre Dame.
Booth made a late-season surge, becoming a starter in the final 10 games and averaging 8.1 points and 4.5 rebounds in the 10-game stretch, six of which the Irish won.
The springy 6-foot-10 forward brought a tremendous upside and is the kind of player who had he stayed at Notre Dame, could’ve helped turn this program around.
Instead, he’ll look for greener pastures and a chance to win now somewhere else instead of years in the future, a pattern we can expect to see more of as Notre Dame becomes more of a stepping stone stop instead of a permanent residence.
In a nutshell, it’s easy to transfer away from Notre Dame and not so easy to transfer into Notre Dame.
And that disparity gap between the coming-and-going transfers is going to be hard for Shrewsberry and Notre Dame to ever close.
1 Prediction
For a variety of reasons, backup Irish quarterback Steve Angeli will become an important part of the Notre Dame offense this season.
Even with transferred senior quarterback Riley Leonard coming over from Duke to become the presumed Irish starter in the fall, it’s important — no, it’s mandatory — for the Notre Dame coaches to get and keep Angeli involved.
In the same way Tyler Buchner provided the Irish offense and their transfer starter Jack Coan a change-of-pace option in 2021, Angeli needs to do the same for Leonard.
With Leonard out, or at least limited, for essentially all of spring ball after undergoing minor ankle surgery last month, Angeli has taken the bulk of QB1 snaps during the spring season.
Factor in that preseason experience advantage with the work Angeli has already done — 504 career passing yards, 7 touchdowns and 1 interception in 10 games — and to not find some sort of package for Angeli this season to keep him engaged, involved, and frankly, on the roster, would be a grave mistake by the Irish coaches, especially given Leonard’s injury history.
What exactly Angeli’s package of plays looks like this fall is up to the Irish coaches to decide. But be certain a regular game-day role for him is already in the works.
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