How Notre Dame QB Kenny Minchey’s promise stopped whispering and started a boisterous surge

Notre Dame quarterback Kenny Minchey throws during an Irish football practice as QBs coach Gino Guidugli looks on. Mike Miller/Blue & Gold

The intangible that hooked Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman on Kenny Minchey late in the 2023 recruiting cycle is the very trait that has suddenly collated all of the redshirt sophomore QB’s raw glimpses of potential into a powerful surge. And helped Minchey hijack what seemed to be an inevitability about who Riley Leonard’s successor as QB1 this season would be when No. 6 Notre Dame opens the season in an “Orange Out” at No. 10 Miami in less than two weeks.