Making their cases

 The first thing you can say about Notre Dame 40, Oregon State 8 in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl yesterday is that sure was a waste of perfectly good Frosted Flakes they dumped on Marcus Freeman's head when it was done.

The second thing you can say is that sure was a flying-color exit exam for Freeman's quarterback, Steve Angeli.

I say "exit exam" because Notre Dame has gone out of its way to tell the kid he isn't wanted, not once but twice. First the Irish brought in Sam Hartman from Wake Forest to play in front of him; now it's Riley Leonard from Duke. 

I'm just guessing here, but I bet there was a little NIL jingle involved in luring Leonard. And I bet that jingle wasn't so Notre Dame can tell Leonard "Hey, guess what? You're gonna be Steve Angeli's backup!"

So, yeah, what Angeli did yesterday -- 14-of-18 passing for 232 yards and three sixes in his first start -- clearly was his audition for the transfer portal. Because I can't imagine why he wouldn't be hitting it up at this point. 

Quarterbacks who can play a bit are always valued commodities in this brave new world of college football, where everyone's pretty much a perpetual free agent. So good on Angeli if he de-materializes in South Bend and materializes somewhere they'll actually let him play a bit.

If so, he'll be following the path taken by many before him, including a kid named Kyle McCord. All he did this year for Ohio State was go 11-1, throw for 3,170 yards and 24 touchdowns with just six picks, and put up the seventh highest QBR in the nation. But all he heard from the perpetually aggrieved Buckeye fan base was a lot of bitching and moaning because dammit he isn't C.J. Stroud.

So when the season ended, he jumped into the transfer portal faster than Captain Kirk beaming down to that planet with the green belly dancers. Now he's at Syracuse, where yesterday he no doubt enjoyed watching the Cotton Bowl.

Ohio State, see, lost 14-3 to Missouri. McCord's replacement, Lincoln Kienholz, completed just 6-of-17 passes for 86 yards. Together, he and Devin Brown were 10-of-24 for 106 yards, as the Buckeyes wheezed out just 12 first downs and 203 total yards. 

The 14-3 loss marked the first time in head coach Ryan Day's six seasons the Buckeyes offense failed to score a touchdown.

(Quick cut to McCord, sitting on his couch: "How you like me NOW, bitches?")

OK. So probably not.

McCord, in fact, was probably rooting for his former teammates, if not his former teammates' dopey fans. In any event, he was the second quarterback to make a case for himself yesterday.

Steve Angeli on the field. And Kyle McCord, in absentia.