SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The absence of doubt stands out when those around CJ Carr discuss Notre Dame’s freshman quarterback.
Carr came to Notre Dame with plenty of expectations due to his family lineage, his longstanding commitment to the Irish and lofty recruiting projections. The first sign that Carr won’t meet those expectations has yet to come.
“CJ is going to be a really good player,” said Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli. “At the end of the day, that’s what it is. He’s got some growth to still do to understand our offense, understanding defenses. But to be a freshman and be where he’s at in August of his freshman year, he has a chance to be really good.”
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The bigger question about Carr is when his time will come as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback. But that’s a question that doesn’t require any answer anytime soon with Notre Dame’s depth chart of senior Riley Leonard and junior Steve Angeli as the clear top two options.
Leonard came to Notre Dame with similarly high expectations as Carr, but those were founded in the success he had as Duke’s starting quarterback, particularly in 2022 as a sophomore. When Leonard enrolled at Duke, he left Fairhope (Ala.) High with a three-star rating from every major recruiting service. Rivals ranked Leonard as the No. 15 dual-threat quarterback in the 2021 class.
So when Leonard was asked Saturday if he sees any similarities between the freshman versions of Carr and himself, he couldn’t have rejected the idea any more firmly.
“Not really any similarities,” Leonard said. “He’s like way, way, way above where I was as a freshman. Honestly, night and day. We don’t have any similarities.”
Leonard, who made one start as a freshman in 2021, described the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Carr as dialed in and someone who doesn’t need much advice even from a veteran quarterback with NFL Draft projections.
“His mental preparation and his will to learn,” Leonard said of what’s so impressive about Carr. “He’s just so eager to develop himself as a quarterback, and he just loves football. Obviously, he has a family that’s been around football his whole life, but he just loves football.
“A lot of freshmen half the time are here just coasting, trying to figure out. At a new school, let me go to this, go here. He really just wants to watch film and hang out with us.”
Leonard included Carr and 2025 Notre Dame quarterback commit Deuce Knight on his May retreat in Fairhope, when he spent time working out and hanging out with several Notre Dame wide receivers. The trip included time spent with former NFL quarterback Philip Rivers, who also resides in Fairhope.
“It was great,” Carr said. “I was thankful Riley invited us to go out there, because I had never been to Alabama before and experienced something like that with an NFL legend. And so it was great just to learn from the guys and start to build chemistry with these wide receivers too.”
Carr has already considered organizing a similar trip for his teammates later in his career. Leondard's leadership style has clearly resonated with Carr. He’s bought into the belief that the best teams in college football are often the closest with their teammates on and off the field.
From the moment Leonard arrived at Notre Dame in January, which was a few weeks after Carr joined the program in preparation for the Sun Bowl, Leonard has been making an effort to get to know everyone in and around the Irish football program.
“He's taught me a lot about just getting to know your guys and trying to develop something with every guy that you can kind of bond over and connect with,” Carr said, “which I think it's helped with just getting to know everyone.”
Upon graduating from Saline (Mich.) High, Carr took advantage of his early enrollment at Notre Dame and benefited from Leonard missing most of the spring due to injury. That gave him more practice reps to learn the new offense being installed by offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. At worst, Carr was working as the third-string quarterback.
Carr is now splitting third-string reps with sophomore Kenny Minchey in preseason camp this month with Leonard and Angeli above them. The challenge for Guidugli is to make sure all of them keep developing.
“They’re all trying to reach their full potential,” Guidugli said. “The change in offense is a chance for everybody to reset. This spring was the introduction, getting the base plan down. And now in fall camp, they’re starting to learn the intricacies of it like, ‘Hey, that’s not a good concept vs. this coverage. If you see that, get us to this.’
“And they’re being asked at the line of scrimmage to make decisions on concepts, on run schemes, and to me that’s the area they have to continue to grow. Here’s the pre-snap look, this is my play-call, I don’t feel this is going to be good, what do I have to get to? That’s the area I’m seeing them take a step this fall camp.”
Carr has tried to build on the understanding of the offense he gained in the spring. It can be challenging with fewer live reps, and that number is only going to decline as the team shifts into typical game preparations later this month. Carr insists he’s more focused on the work than trying to climb the depth chart ladder.
The only person Carr is trying to beat is yesterday’s version of himself.
“If I just keep stacking days, then what's supposed to happen will happen,” Carr said. “Just beat yourself every day and that's what will end up making the most progress.”
As a grandson of former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr on his father’s side and former All-America safety Tom Curtis on his mother’s side, CJ Carr has certainly heard his share of football maxims and mottos. Carr will find inspiration from unlikely sources, too.
The latest saying, which Carr scribbled on his hand last week, was “Pressure is an illusion.” It’s something he heard from a 2021 interview of American Olympian Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. McLaughlin-Levrone won gold medals in the past two Summer Olympics in both the 400-meter hurdles and the 4x400-meter relay. When McLaughlin-Levrone won gold in the 400-meter hurdles at the Paris Olympics earlier this month, she set a world record in the women’s event for a sixth time. She’s the only one breaking her own record.
That’s a pretty good model of beating yesterday’s version of yourself. Only Carr can control if the expectations thrust upon him impact him in some way. That kind of pressure can create doubt.
“Pressure's something you put on yourself,” Carr said. “Like, I can control whether I'm feeling it or not. So, I kind of realized that when the Olympian said that. I try not to think of it like that. I think of this is an opportunity. This isn't something that's threatening me. This is something that I can learn from.”
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