(Notre Dame) — Notre Dame Director of Football Performance Loren Landow said the Irish lack of postseason play led to “a longer runway” for winter conditioning.

Head football coach Marcus Freeman hopes that leads to a smooth takeoff for 2026.

Entering his fifth spring at the helm, Freeman met the media Wednesday, saying “this has been a unique off-season. We’ve never had this much time, a full eight weeks of conditioning. We’re further along than we have been before. There’s been a lot of benefits for this group.”

One area specifically is surgical recovery time. The Irish will take a depleted roster https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AuqyLiSer/ into the spring, but thanks to the advanced conditioning and so many veterans returning, spring practices will look different.

“We can have more team periods, we’re going to do more football, more good-on-good to evaluate different things,” remarked Freeman. “We feel we’ve had a good eight weeks. We’re going to have more time to dedicate to 11-on-11, 7-on-7, inside run drills, because we feel like they’re at a level where they can handle that.”

While C.J. Carr is set as the starter, many eyes will be on the backup quarterback competition. In the spring it will involve redshirt freshman Blake Hebert and true freshman Noah Grubbs, with incoming freshman Teddy Jarrard joining the squad in the summer.

“We have to be intentional where we can rotate quarterbacks,” said Freeman. “How do you script practice to get them the right amount of work with the right group? That’s the challenge. At some point before the season, you have to name a backup quarterback, because at any moment, the backup quarterback could be the starter. That doesn’t mean they’re going to be the starter next year.”

Freeman also left no doubt that his motto of “Leave No Doubt” would be hammered home to the players throughout the season.

“I want it more than anything to be an everyday mindset,” noted Freeman. “that we leave no doubt that we made the most of what we had today. If you accumulate that over months and months, we’ll see if we left no doubt that we reached our full potential.”

The Irish begin their allotment of 15 spring practices on Friday and will play the annual Blue-Gold Game April 25th at the Stadium.