The quarterback competition in South Bend is starting to heat up, but this time it isn't for the starting role. Rising redshirt sophomore CJ Carr returns but after former Notre Dame quarterbacks Kenny Minchey and Steve Angeli have entered the transfer portal in back to back seasons, the depth in the Fighting Irish quarterback room is looking relatively thin.
There's an on-going battle for the No. 2 quarterback spot which is currently featuring rising redshirt freshman Blake Hebert and freshman quarterback Teddy Jarrard who will be on campus this summer. Fellow 2026 recruiting classmate Noah Grubbs is already on campus, battling it out with Hebert to get a foothold on the competition this spring. The coaches didn't wait long to get Grubbs acclimated to the college game.
"Our feeling about Noah from the time we recruited him was he could make all the throws," offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock explained after their first spring practice. "There was never any question in our minds that he had enough arm to do the job. I thought he did some good things today for being somebody who was young and rattled. We definitely threw him in the deep end today."
This won't be a position battle that comes to a conclusion at the end of spring training. Notre Dame quarterback's coach Gino Guidugli understands that this process will take the duration of the offseason to find a suitable No. 2 quarterback. But the current back up to Carr is in the room. Now, it's about developing the young talent that's in the room.
"My expectation for them this spring is to get through spring ball," Guidugli explained. "I want them to understand defensively, if they're in man or zone during pre-snap reads. I want them to be able to adjust our protection schemes, and I want them to be able to execute our offense.
"The things CJ is doing, like we're not going to put that on their shoulders yet," Guidugli continued. "We've got to get a base and a fundamental understanding of our offense and see them go execute that before we get into changing plays and tapping plays out, all the things that eventually come with responsibility to be the quarterback of this offense."
In the limited practices we have seen, Grubbs has been willing to let the ball fly and push it down field. There's a level of trust that he has in his abilities and he exudes confidence for a young player. After all, you don't win the Florida State Championship on a Hail Mary and be award the title of 'Mr. Football' down in the Sunshine State if you lack confidence. But those traits are shared with Notre Dame's current starter; that's starting to standout to their quarterback's coach.
"CJ was the same way as a freshman," Guidugli shared. "I think you want a guy that's going to do that as opposed to someone that's going to go the other way and not trust it. I always tell him in practice, 'You've got to figure out what you can and can't do,' and that's part of that process. He was down on himself after Saturday's practice, and then came back today and had a great practice. It's going to be a learning process."
Notre Dame is far from naming a No. 2 quarterback to back up Carr this fall, but this is a position battle that they have to take their time in. Last season was the first season since 2020 that a back up quarterback hasn't been called upon at some point throughout the season. Ideally, that trend continues in 2026, but in this game that's never something you bet on. Whichever number is called, whether that's Grubbs, Hebert or Jarrard, they'll have to be ready for the moment.
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