Hey Horka! Which Notre Dame football player are we talking too much about?

In this edition of Hey Horka!, a weekly Notre Dame football message board mailbag column, the initial focus is on which Fighting Irish player we’ve spent too much time talking about this offseason — and which one we haven’t. Plus, plenty more about Fighting Irish football in the form of questions posed by BlueandGold.com subscribers answered by yours truly.

Which Notre Dame player are we talking about too much? Which are we not talking about enough? — Toe Fuzz

I’m going to give two answers that go hand-in-hand. Not enough: Jadarian Price. Too much: Jeremiyah Love. This is nothing against Love, by the way. He’s uber talented. But I think we’re going to see the best of Price this fall, and he very well might end up leading Notre Dame in rushing if Mike Denbrock ends up using Love all over the field. I worry that Love gets spread thin that way, though, which is why I’ll stand by my answer in that we need to be giving Price a little more, er, love.

What’s more concerning for Notre Dame in Week 1: Texas A&M’s loud crowd or the hot Texas weather? — arrowfan624

Man, is it ever hot down here. I am too used to the Midwest now. I don’t know how my family and friends do it. I’ve been melting with real temps over 100 and heat indexes up to 110 with the humidity.

I honestly think the heat is a bigger factor, but luckily for Notre Dame the Irish have a head coach in Marcus Freeman who is so meticulous about external factor type of stuff that I think he’s going to have the guys hydrated and ready to go from a physical standpoint.

I’ve never understood cramping in sports because these athletes have all the resources in the world to have their bodies ready to work. Freeman and his staff should have them prepared. That said, if A&M throws some punches early — makes a big defensive stop or gets on the board first, whatever it may be — the place will be absolutely rocking. Notre Dame has to land the first haymaker.

Which players can make a move into the two-deep by the end of fall camp? — arrowfan624

I like Guerby Lambert, Bryce Young and Cooper Flanagan as guys who are currently technically outside the two deep but will be top-two players at their respective positions by the time the season starts.

Can Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo coexist in the same backcourt? — Happynd

Absolutely. I think Miles recently made a good point about that; Hidalgo committed to and signed with the Irish knowing very well Miles was the Notre Dame floor general of the present and future. If she saw Miles doing her thing and had second thoughts about choosing to play with such a ball-dominant point guard, she would have de-committed and decided to play somewhere else. She didn’t. She likes the vision of playing with Miles and Miles likes it too. I will admit I’m interested to see how Hidalgo not having the ball in her hands every trip down the floor affects her overall impact on the game, but ballers like that find a way. If they can figure out the usage they will be the best backcourt in the country.

Who is Notre Dame’s starting quarterback in 2025? — Irishchef3

CJ Carr. I love Steve Angeli but having Carr and Deuce Knight on the same roster and not starting one of them seems like it could create chaos and division in the room and that’s the last thing you want. It’s time Notre Dame goes with a young, highly talented, highly heralded, homegrown young recruit as its starting quarterback. I honestly have no idea how the Carr/Knight situation is going to unfold, by the way. It’ll be fascinating.

How will Notre Dame handle paying players directly? That seems to go against the Irish’s core values. — Irishchef3

The thing about that is Notre Dame won’t have another choice. If it comes down as proposed, paying players directly will be mandated.

Marcus Freeman doesn’t have a problem with it. What can get kind of squirrely and maybe hinder the football program’s recruiting efforts is if Notre Dame is allocating more money for, say, women’s basketball than other universities and football players are taking “pay cuts” as a result, people on here are going to be getting mighty loud and unhappy. Also, Freeman said he believes a player what he’s worth. But, of course, players tend to believe they’re worth more than they’re actually getting. I think the transfer portal could get even more hectic than it already is if the payments are indeed different for each player. I don’t know if any of that made sense but that’s the point, a lot of this doesn’t. Nobody has figured out the perfect way to do this and it’s possible nobody ever will.

Between his success at the Manning Passing Academy and possible first-round draft buzz, does it feel like Riley Leonard will get much closer to having a Jayden Daniels-like season than Sam Hartman did? — Slevmania

Well, Leonard is more similar in play style to Daniels than Hartman, by a mile, so that alone helps. And Denbrock helps too. Thirdly, health. If he’s healthy enough to go down there and win that competition, that’s a really good sign. Everything changes when you put pads on and take hits though. I don’t think Leonard is going to have a Heisman-caliber season, but he could very well get back to who he was in 2022. That’s what I keep going back to; if he’s THAT guy again, Notre Dame will make the College Football Playoff and scare some teams in the dance.

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