What’s next for Notre Dame after CFP National Championship loss? Irish need to be better through the air

ATLANTA — Notre Dame may have fallen short of the College Football Playoff National Championship, losing to Ohio State 34-23, but the fact that they’re even here in the first place is quite the achievement in itself. 

After taking the worst loss any CFP contender had all season in dropping a home game to Northern Illinois, the Irish’s CFP hopes seemed dead on arrival. But they used a complementary football approach with great defense and special teams to quietly thrash the rest of their regular season opponents and march to the Playoff as the hottest team in college football. Notre Dame quickly fell behind the eight-ball Monday night, but battled back valiantly. 

Now that their season is done, what these are three big questions for Notre Dame to answer heading into next season. 

Who will start at quarterback?  

Marcus Freeman said in December that Notre Dame will not go portal shopping for a new signal-caller, so they’ll roll with who is already on the roster if Freeman’s word is good. That means Steve Angeli could be the guy moving forward, but a QB competition in the spring could prove otherwise. 

Angeli has been QB2 this season, and came in for Leonard in the CFP semifinal against Penn State and went 6-for-7, leading the team’s first scoring drive heading into the half. Teammates expressed complete confidence in him after the game. But Angeli will have to go up against highly-rated 2024 recruit CJ Carr this spring. 

Carr suffered a season ending elbow injury in September. How he recovers and whether he can live up to his recruiting potential and pedigree — yes, his grandfather is former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr — will determine the future of the Irish offense. 

Can the Irish wideouts take the next step? 

Notre Dame has only had one 1,000-yard receiver since 2016, when Chase Claypool barely eclipsed the number in 2019. No matter who is the guy at QB, it will be up to Notre Dame’s young pass catchers to take the next step. 

Juniors-to-be Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse will be called upon to deliver explosive plays. The national title game showed they’re capable, but it’s telling the passing game did not take off until desperation time. The game script for Notre Dame, which was heavy on QB run, was not what ended up working so well for the Irish as they tried to stage a comeback. Greathouse had three touchdowns in the last two games. He entered the semifinals round of the playoff with one. He is clearly good enough to do much more. 

There’s little question about a run game that will feature Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price and Aneyas Williams yet again, as well as a solid offensive line, but what can they get from the passing game? 

Will the schedule fall favorably again? 

The Irish schedule, as usual, tests them early and often with the first two games against Miami on the road and a home date with Texas A&M. There’s also an early October date with Boise State that looks very intriguing if the Broncos can rebound from losing All-American running back Ashton Jeanty. 

The fact of this year’s Notre Dame slate is that they were able to rebound from the Northern Illinois loss in part because their slate was not very difficult as Florida State and USC fell way below expectation. Part of getting to the postseason is the path, and ND’s could be fraught next year as they hope to get to the mountaintop again.