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FILE – Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr prepares to throw a pass during the first quarter of an NCAA football game against Navy, Nov. 8, 2025, in South Bend, Ind.<\/p>\n
Paul Beaty\/AP Photo\/Paul Beaty<\/p>\n
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) \u2014 Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr spent the summer playing ping-pong and golf, hanging out with teammates and, of course, refining his football skills.<\/p>\n
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He was too busy competing to pay attention to what everyone else was saying \u2014 that he could be a Heisman Trophy candidate and that the fourth-ranked Fighting Irish could end their national championship drought.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think 90% of that\u2019s coming from social media,\u201d Carr said. \u201cThat\u2019s where 80% of the noise comes from, and then you\u2019ll have your mom calling you on a Saturday like, \u2018Did you see this?\u2019 And it\u2019s like, \u2018Alright, relax.\u2019 If you delete the noise, then it\u2019s not there anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when you’re the starting quarterback at a storied program, high expectations are just part of the job. And in today’s college world, returning for the second year as the starter means it’s virtually impossible not to be mentioned in those conversations, especially after the kind of season Carr had in 2025.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound junior started all 12 games and threw at least one touchdown pass in each one. And though he was far from perfect, he steadied the ship following an 0-2 start with 10 straight wins while leading an offense that finished second in the Bowl Subdivision in scoring (41.8 points). Carr threw for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns, dominating Arkansas by throwing for 354 yards and four TDs.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Now, he gets to do it all over again, this time as a tested veteran with a new mindset after Notre Dame missed last year’s playoff and spending the offseason trying to build more chemistry with his receivers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just an on-the-field thing,\u201d Carr said, noting they traveled to Jacksonville, Florida, for some team-building activities. \u201cIt\u2019s, \u2018Let\u2019s go play ping-pong and eat lunch and hang out.\u2019 There\u2019s a ton of time throughout the summer and camp to do that. So you become really close with these guys off the field. Then, in a way, you can kind of read their minds on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n Receivers Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse are both back with Carr for another season, and Ohio State transfers Ohio State transfers Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter add more than depth to Notre Dame’s offense. Together, the quartet could emerge as game-changers.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes my life easy,\u201d Carr said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to play us in man coverage because it\u2019s pick your poison. It makes it easy with a bunch of guys who understand football and are really talented.\u201d<\/p>\n Carr understands football better than most. His father, Jason, played football at Michigan and his grandfather, Lloyd, was Michigan’s longtime head coach who led the Wolverines to the 1997 national championship.<\/p>\n Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman believes Carr’s lineage gives him a leg up on the competition.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s almost like a version of a coordinator on the field,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cThe coach-to-player communication cuts off in 15 seconds, and he\u2019s able to see a defense and anticipate what the defense is going to be and put our offense in a position to not have a negative play. That\u2019s more important, probably, than the explosive plays.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Freeman added: “Those explosive plays happen for plenty of different reasons, but to keep our offense out of negative plays and have a quarterback that can see it because he\u2019s prepared, he\u2019s intelligent, he has experience, it’s an X factor, and you don\u2019t have to depend on a coach telling the player everything.\u201d<\/p>\n While the football IQ has always been there, the processing part consistently sped up as Carr gained experience last season.<\/p>\n But Greathouse believes Carr’s progression has continued through the spring and summer, and that what will keep talking this season will be the difference they see Carr on the field.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, last season was his first season,\u201d Greathouse said. \u201cYou know you\u2019re going to get smarter as you keep going. You can definitely see that throughout practice. The way he leads the team, the way that he leads the offense, I definitely think he\u2019s taken a step up and so that means our chemistry is going even stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The first test comes Sept. 6 against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.<\/p>\n Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here. Visit the Top 25 here and see AP\u2019s full college football coverage here.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr prepares to throw a pass during the first quarter of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":979974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,27000,8484,71411,7801,49,48,4732,27878,27876,96501,991],"class_list":["post-979973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-jaden-greathouse","tag-jason","tag-jordan-faison","tag-marcus-freeman","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40785-ap-indiana-sports-only","tag-wisconsin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117138323447163704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/979974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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