CJ Carr returns as Notre Dame's first back-to-back starter since 2020, but the fight for backup ignites a competitive spring battle.
The outlook on Notre Dame's quarterback room is vastly different than what it was a year ago at this time. In the spring of 2025, the Irish were undergoing a three-way quarterback battle to see who the starter would be. Eventually, that road led us to CJ Carr who returns as the starter in 2026. He's Notre Dame's first returning signal caller since 2020. There's still a competition going on, but it's for who steps in as the No. 2 guy on the depth chart. Redshirt freshman Blake Hebert, freshman Noah Grubbs and summer arrival Teddy Jarrard will carry this competition into the fall.
In today's show, we start our 'state of the union' series where we walk through each position group on the roster. Today, we start with the Fighting Irish quarterbacks. We talk through their overall growth in the spring, where they have to continue to grow into the summer and fall and then we talk through where they stand on the recruiting trail for the 2027 and 2028 class. We wrapped everything up with a daily mailbag this afternoon. You can listen to all of that and more in today's edition of the Irish Breakdown Podcast.
You can watch the entire show here:
Here are some of the main topics we discussed on today's episode:
On If We Feel Better About The Quarterback Room After Spring...
"As of today on April 30, I feel significantly better about the state of the quarterback room compared to how I felt going into spring. Not a lot of that had to do with Carr, but around the back up quarterback situation. Noah Grubbs and Blake Hebert are two talented kids, but would they be ready, God forbid, if they had to enter a game?
"Their progression throughout spring training makes me feel a lot more comfortable with the quarterback room. Now, it's looks different than it did last year. Last spring, we went into summer workouts and fall camp talking about how we felt good no matter who the starter was. Grubbs, Hebert and Teddy Jarrard who will be on campus here soon will need to continue to grow. But as of today, I feel a lot better about the quarterback situation."
On What CJ Carr Has To Continue To Do To Grow...
"It's going to sound like we're nit-picking, but we're talking about what it takes to go from a really, really good quarterback to an elite quarterback. Carr set the program record, by a mile, for passer rating last season. He was also fifth in the country in yards per attempt this year. But there's still room for him to grow. I want to see Carr work on his consistency this offseason and be willing to make full-field reads.
"Sometimes, he can still get too locked into his initial target, but there were a couple of times in the jersey scrimmage and the Blue-Gold game that would have went for big plays if he came off his initial read. I also want to see him get better at reacting to pressure and manipulating the pocket. Sometimes, it's okay to tuck it and just go instead of continuing to climb the pocket looking for an open receiver."
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