In back to back seasons, there's a quarterback competition brewing at Notre Dame . Last season, it was for the starting job and it came down to CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey . Carr eventually emerged victorious and returns this season as one of the most talked about signal callers in the preseason. This year, South Bend will be home to another quarterback competition, this time for the No. 2 spot.
The previous two back up quarterbacks are now at new destinations with Minchey going to Kentucky and former No. 2 quarterback Steve Angeli returning to start for the Syracuse Orange this season. There is now a three-man battle for the No. 2 quarterback job behind Carr and we'll get to see sophomore Blake Hebert and true freshmen Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard battle it out throughout fall camp. Head coach Marcus Freeman knows he has to be intentional around getting the three contending players enough reps to make a formal decision.
"The way we structure practice has to be intentional about getting those three other quarterbacks enough reps that we can evaluate them," Freeman explained. "You'll see Blake and Noah split reps with the ones and twos. If they don't go with the twos, they'll go with the threes, and then we have to be intentional about getting Teddy caught up. He just got here in June and he's had a really good summer. But it's different when you start practicing with coaches around and you start adding install.
"We have to find aways to keep developing those guys," Freeman continued. "We know at some point, we have to name a backup for week one. But this will be a unique year where the backup for week doesn't mean you're the backup for week six. We have to be intentional about who's doing the scout team, who's going to be up with the travel squad and what reps they're getting. This evaluation will go on until probably the end of the season."
We've seen both Hebert and Grubbs with this version of the Fighting Irish offense dating back to spring training. The one wild card in the group is Jarrard who was a summer arrival. The Georgia native reclassified from the 2027 recruiting class to the 2026 recruiting class. At the time, Jarrard was one of the highest ranked recruits in the 2027 class and was still a four-star recruit in the '26 cycle. His presence adds a wrinkle to this quarterback competition.
"It not unrealistic for anybody," Freeman answered when asked if it was realistic that Jarrard wins the No. 2 job. "Teddy is a talented football player. His physical skills, we've all seen in high school. To be a guy who can reclassify a year up shows you that he's intelligent and puts the work in.
"Now it's about how fast we can expedite this process to get him to where he's playing fast," Freeman continued. "That's always the challenge. As you evaluate these guys in high school, you're evaluating them playing as fast as they can and making decisions as fast as they can. It's our job to get them caught up so we can evaluate them making fast decisions. Only time will tell how long that takes."
The battle for the back up quarterback spot may not draw as much attention as last year's competition, but that doesn't make it any less important. Last season was an outlier in that we didn't have to see the back up quarterback out of necessity. That was not the case, however, in 2021, 2022, 2023 or 2024. Whoever wins this job will have the be ready whenever their number is called.
All three players between Hebert, Grubbs and Jarrard have the physical talent to thrive at Notre Dame. It's now about who can get up to speed, run the offense effectively and grow in the position the most. By all accounts, it doesn't sound like this position battle will be over with the conclusion of fall camp. If one player holds onto the job for the duration of the season, it will have been earned.
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