‘Kenny is that dude’: Notre Dame teammates have big expectations for new UK QB
Knowing how Notre Dame football’s 2025 season played out, it would be easy to assume the team was always envisioned to be built around star redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr.
Carr completed 66.7% of his passes for 2,741 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions to lead Notre Dame to a 10-2 record. If not for a fluke in the ACC standings that paved the way for James Madison to earn the College Football Playoff spot reserved for the fifth-highest ranked conference champion, Notre Dame would have been a playoff team.
But as late as mid-August it was far from certain Carr was even going to start for the Fighting Irish.
“People were wondering, why did it take so long to decide who’s going to be the No. 1 guy?” former Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price said. “Well, because Kenny (Minchey) is that dude, so I’m excited to see what he does this season.”
To learn more about Minchey, the quarterback that new UK coach Will Stein plans to build his 2026 offense around, The Herald-Leader spoke with four of his former Notre Dame teammates at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis and Stein in a one-on-one interview.
Minchey was the veteran in Notre Dame’s 2025 quarterback competition as a third-year sophomore, but finished just short.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman called the choice to start Carr, “one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make,” when he broke the news to Minchey. That conversation was recorded for the behind-the-scenes documentary “Here Come the Irish” on streaming-service Peacock.
Minchey would appear in six games as Carr’s backup, completing 20 of 26 passes for 196 yards in limited snaps.
With Carr having three years of eligibility left and one more season before he could even consider declaring for the NFL draft, Minchey, as expected, entered the transfer portal in January. He initially committed to Nebraska but flipped to Kentucky after Stein pivoted to pursue him when it became apparent No. 1-ranked transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt was not going to sign with the Wildcats.
Now, Minchey enters his first spring practice at Kentucky as the presumptive starter for a new coaching staff. He has plenty to prove with zero career starts, but will bring no shortage of hype to Lexington as the hand-picked quarterback for the coach who helped develop Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore into stars at Oregon.
“I’m not in the mindset of hype or star rating or anything like that,” Stein said. “You put on the tape, and what do you see? And what I see with Kenny is accuracy, his ability to throw on time and complete the ball all over the field with like, elite accuracy.
“Then we need to do a background check on him as a person and what his mental makeup is. He’s extremely smart, well-spoken, natural leader.”
That background check included conversations with Minchey’s former Notre Dame coaches.
“They really felt as a staff, if they would have played Kenny, they would have won 10 games last year with him,” Stein said. “So, it came down to, I think, some youth with the other quarterback that they chose. But thankfully for us, we have Kenny on our roster.”
Minchey is not exactly a diamond in the rough who Stein and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan will need to work magic to turn into a high-level prospect.
He was rated as a consensus four-star prospect as a senior at Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The 247Sports Composite ranked him as the No. 12 quarterback in the high school class of 2023.
Despite playing only sparingly in three seasons at Notre Dame, The Athletic ranked him as the 16th-best quarterback available in the transfer portal in January, four spots ahead of former UK starter Cutter Boley.
“I think we have a spoil of riches in Notre Dame at all position groups,” said former Notre Dame offensive lineman Aamil Wagner, the younger brother of former UK wide receiver Ahmad Wagner. “I think quarterback was no different. Both CJ and Kenny are extremely talented quarterbacks.
“...I think (Minchey) is a great athlete with a great arm — and a great person as well. It’s just obviously unfortunate he didn’t get the job in Notre Dame, but I’m excited to see what the future holds for him.”
It would be understandable if Kentucky fans looked at Minchey’s resume with some skepticism.
Mark Stoops and his staff tried a similar tactic when they signed former five-star high school quarterback Brock Vandagriff as a transfer after three years as a little-used backup at Georgia for the 2024 season. The hope was Vandagriff still boasted the potential suggested by his high school rankings but had been blocked from playing by equally talented and older quarterbacks at Georgia.
Instead, in one year as a Wildcat, Vandagriff looked rusty and struggled to overcome a porous offensive line. He eventually elected to retire from playing football rather than use his final college season of eligibility to return to UK or transfer again.
Signing a veteran backup from a powerhouse program worked better for Kentucky when the quarterback was Will Levis in 2021. It was now Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen who picked Levis from a gaggle of available transfer quarterbacks to pursue at Kentucky.
Coen has since proven himself as one of the brightest offensive minds in football. Stein arrives at Kentucky with a similar reputation, and it is worth noting that none of Nix, Gabriel or Moore were considered the best-available transfer quarterbacks when they signed with Oregon.
“My track record and Joe’s with quarterback play, I don’t think you’re going to find a better head coach and coordinator duo in the country than us,” Stein said of himself and Sloan, who coached Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels at LSU. “We’ve been able to coach the offenses that we’ve ran and see the success that the quarterbacks have had in the National Football League once they get there.
“So, I think that’s what really turned Kenny on with Kentucky football. And obviously, being from Nashville and closer to home was a great tie for us. .. When you’ve got a chance to play quarterback in this league and surround yourself with an offensive line like we’ve been able to get for him, I think it was a no brainer.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 6:05 AM.