How good will CJ Carr be this year?
Joe and Ryan discuss why CJ Carr could be the biggest key to Notre Dame's title hopes, how Marcus Freeman has built one of the most complete rosters in college football, and why the Irish enter 2026 with legitimate CFP and national championship expectations. ESPN has highlighted Carr as the quarterback Notre Dame has been waiting for, while recent Notre Dame coverage has framed 2026 as a season with major championship pressure in South Bend.
Video Transcript
All these things are great, but I really do think it's gonna come down to, can C.J.
Carr now drive the bus fully and unlock this offense?
So C.J.
did a lot of great things as a redshirt freshman in his first year starting quarterback, but the difference of this conversation of C.J.
and this evolution that needs to happen is kind of back to my initial point of last year, everything worked off of the run game, right?
Your run game sets up the potential explosives and play action shots and different things that C.J.
was able to take advantage of in his year one as a starter.
Do believe that a lot more of the explosives are gonna have to come through the passing game, which is fine, but when you're not creating explosives in the run game, it's harder to consistently create explosives in the passing game 'cause teams are going to kind of prioritize how they defend you a little bit differently.
So a lot more is gonna be put on C.J.
Carr's plate in terms of, I think there's gonna be more throws on early downs this year.
This is not gonna be running team that has an explosive passing attack off of the run.
This is gonna be more of a r- pass game that needs to set up the run to be in advantageous situations.
So all the tools are there.
As we mentioned, the offensive line on paper is extremely talented.
The wide receiver room is the deepest that it's been on, on paper.
All these things are great, but I really do think it's gonna come down to, can C.J.
Carr now drive the bus fully and unlock this offense?
He is the overall key of the other keys that we've talked about for this team to be a championship team.
C.J.
Carr needs to pull the bus, and those guys needs to come along for the ride.
