Notre Dame football has already answered several major question marks that existed heading into Spring Practice

Spring practice has come and gone for the Notre Dame football program. As is typically the case, that practice slate gave everyone a lot of optimism for how good the 2025 team can be. There will be position battles that rage in the rest of the offseason, and continue into fall camp, but there were also several questions already answered. 

Here are a couple of positions that Fighting Irish fans should feel a lot better about heading into the next stage of this offseason. Things will, of course, change over the next several months. That doesn’t change the fact that this program, and in this case several key positions, continue to create more and more excitement.

Quarterback 

This might be a surprise to some, and confusing to others, but I feel much better about the quarterback position than I did heading into the spring. Wait, but, this means Notre Dame is going to be starting a completely unproven quarterback against Miami? With Steve Angeli hitting the portal, that means that the quarterback room is thinner than it was prior? 

Heading into the spring, there seemed like two likely scenarios. It was the assumption that either Angeli or CJ Carr would probably end up being the top signal caller for the team in the end. Things changed once Kenny Minchey had a big spring, which forced Angeli to make the decision to leave. That speaks to the overall strength of the room. Angeli, on paper, brings the most experience and trust in the offense. Both Carr and Minchey beating him out in the spring give me a lot of confidence that either of them will end up being just fine, and then some. 

Safety 

Replacing someone like Xavier Watts isn’t going to be easy. The All-American leaves a huge void for a playmaker and leader on the back end. Adon Shuler was expected to pick up some of that slack after a strong season in 2024 (59 total tackles, three interceptions, eight pass breakups), but would the Irish defense be able to reload with such little proven production next to Shuler? 

As it turns out, the safety depth is so strong that Kennedy Urlacher made the decision to transfer to USC in result. Which one of Brauntae Johnson, Luke Talich, JaDon Blair, or Jalen Stroman will pick up the most slack? The answer appears to be that it doesn’t really matter. That is a lot of length and athleticism for one group. No matter what the split share at safety ends up looking like, the impact looks like it’ll be pretty dang good. 

Tight end 

My opinion on tight end has changed quite a bit, although I’m still not completely sold on the health of that room. The minute that Cooper Flanagan tore his Achilles last season, the depth of that group became very murky. That’s especially true considering Eli Raridon has dealt with a series of ACL injuries while with the program. Kevin Bauman has been plagued with injuries as well.

Seeing Raridon this spring, however, did give me a lot of hope that the Irish could have a breakout on their hands. If Jack Larsen can continue heading in the right direction, and either Arkansas transfer Ty Washington or true freshman James Flanigan can flash once they arrive this summer, then the tight end position could end up being significantly better than I originally thought. If Raridon does suffer an injury setback, then my concerns would come back quickly.