CJ Carr Gets His Chance To Have A Defining Moment At Notre Dame

Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr arrived in South Bend with sky high expectations, and in many ways the Michigan native has lived up to them. For all of his success, there are some very important things eluding Carr, but he has a chance to change that on Saturday.

If Carr's Notre Dame career ended today he would own the program's record for career quarterback rating, and the No. 2 quarterback (Kevin McDougal) would be closer to the No. 5 quarterback (Ian Book) than he would be to Carr. He would also be tied for No. 1 overall in completion percentage, and the player he is tied with (Riley Leonard) and player right behind him (Jack Coan) only played one season with the Irish.

But for all his success, Carr has yet to earn a signature win. Winning games is a lot more than who the quarterback is, but that's ultimately how quarterbacks are evaluated. Carr led the Irish to wins over a pair of ranked teams in 2025, but he didn't play at his best in either game, which was a 34-24 win over USC and a 37-15 win over Pittsburgh. During his tenure, Carr is 0-3 in starts against Top 10 teams, including a 28-24 road loss to BYU last month.

It's not that Carr is the reason for those losses. He led the Irish back from a 21-7 second half deficit, and his 7-yard touchdown run tied the game 24-24 in the fourth quarter. A week later, in a 34-34 game in the fourth quarter, Carr led the offense on a 74-yard drive that gave Notre Dame a 40-34 lead with just 2:53 left in the game. Notre Dame also took a 24-21 fourth quarter lead against BYU, in part because of a Carr 38-yard pass on third-down and a Carr conversion with his legs on a fourth-down call. 

Unfortunately, in all three instances the defense led by Chris Ash faltered and gave up scoring drives to the opposition. Carr had a chance to lead the Irish down against BYU, but his final pass against the Cougars fell incomplete and the Irish dropped yet another Top 10 game.

Carr gets another chance on Saturday night when Notre Dame takes on No. 1 Miami. It's the kind of career-defining win that can vault Carr into a different stratosphere among the all-time great quarterbacks at Notre Dame. He's on pace to be one of the program's more productive passers, but Notre Dame quarterbacks are defined by big wins, and Carr needs a big win.

For some reason, it seems the Irish staff has been holding Carr back this season. As a redshirt freshman, Carr passed for at least 290 yards in four games, all of which came in the first eight games. He averaged at least 10.0 yards per attempt in four games. Through eight games in his second season as a starter, Carr has yet to reach even 265 yards in a game, and he's topped 10.0 yards per attempt just twice. His passer rating is also down a bit despite having an 18-1 touchdown to interception ratio. The Irish offense seems so risk averse and focused on building its ground game that it has not allowed its star quarterback to play like a star quarterback.

If Notre Dame is going to become the team that it can be, and should be, Carr will need to raise his game to another level. Part of that is about the staff building the offense more through what he can do post snap. Notre Dame seems to have taken some of the gunslinger out of Carr's game, and he hasn't been as willing to take chances, which limits some of the big plays he's capable of making. The other part of that is on Carr, who has had some uncharacteristic misses in recent weeks. He also needs to play better by making better decisions and making more big time throws. 

Facing the No. 1 team in the country might lead a head coach with a conservative approach - which Marcus Freeman clearly has with his offense - to lean into that, and lean into running the football. But Miami arrives with the 122nd-ranked pass defense in the country, and the Hurricanes have allowed 326.7 passing yards per game and 10 touchdown passes in the last three games. Miami is also giving up 31 points per game in its last three games.

It's time for Notre Dame to allow Carr to be a dominant player, and it's time for Carr to have his big game moment for the Irish.

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