SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame ended training camp Friday with a scrimmage of nearly 100 plays, standard practice for mid-August during head coach Marcus Freeman’s previous four seasons in charge. Most years, Freeman is eager to get into what the Irish did well, picking out a few standout performances and naming a winner between the offense and defense.This year, not so much.It’s hard to tell if Freeman didn’t like what he saw or was just gassed from the breakneck pace of camp, which had been reconfigured by design. Notre Dame crammed in 15 more hours of meetings during training camp’s first 10 days, trying to create time before school begins next week. Notre Dame will break this weekend, then shift into game prep for Wisconsin.“The amount of break time is condensed. The amount of time you have from walk-throughs to the next meeting is condensed, and it’s jam-packed,” Freeman said. “There’s not much downtime from the minute they get in the building and we start meetings to the minute they leave.“We’ve been intentional about pushing them … in the hopes to make sure in Week 1 that we’re playing at a higher elevation.”Notre Dame doesn't need to join a conference, for nowPete SampsonWith a No. 4 ranking in the major preseason polls and receiving first-place votes, there’s a lot of love for Notre Dame nationally. Internally, the Irish still have questions to answer before heading to Lambeau Field. Here are the biggest ones by position, with some spots more settled than others.QuarterbackDid Notre Dame get any closer to figuring out its QB2? It didn’t sound like it as Freeman talked through the competition among Blake Hebert, Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard. Hebert missed nearly half of camp with an undisclosed personal issue, which may have opened the door for Grubbs and Jarrard to beat him out. If the differences between all three quarterbacks are negligible in mid-August, it’s hard to believe the more talented quarterbacks — Jarrard and Grubbs — won’t grow into the more capable ones by mid-season.“Who’s the backup quarterback? I would like to say we’ll go watch it and make a decision, but I don’t know if we’ll be ready to here today,” Freeman said. “We’ll probably get to the next week and start saying, ‘We gotta have a guy really getting the reps, and what’s gonna be the game for that person?'”During the limited media viewings, Grubbs and Jarrard worked with the second-team offense during the tempo drill, which is basically a handful of rapid-fire plays in 11-on-11 without serious contact. Each threw touchdowns during team periods that Notre Dame put on social media.Are either ready to play in a game, even if the outcome is without doubt? Probably not. But it seems like the Irish staff wants to get them there.Running backCan a player have a breakout camp when he’s already the starter? It feels like Aneyas Williams had a camp that elevated him from “first-time starter” to “established contributor” within the offense. For a player who logged just 47 snaps last season and was limited during spring ball following offseason elbow surgery, this is a big jump.Notre Dame doesn’t need Williams to be the next Jeremiyah Love or Jadarian Price, because he’s not going to be. But to be the next workhorse back who can convert short yardage and be a threat in the pass game? It seems like Williams is already there.If Williams and Nolan James Jr. felt like 1 and 1A coming out of spring ball, that now feels closer to 1 and 2. It’s not a surprise the staff seems to favor Jonaz Walton as the third back, but it’s worth noting that running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider continues to rave about the freshman from Carrollton, Ga. Still, Freeman noted Kedren Young, who suffered a season-ending injury a year ago, could be a factor.This running back room won’t be as good as last season — no one expected it to — but it should be enough for Notre Dame to have success on the ground.