Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 13, 2025 27 INSIDE THE NUMBERS AND THE MOXIE OF CJ CARR'S FIRST START Maybe the most amusing part of CJ Carr's first postmortem as a Notre Dame starting quarterback was how ap- parently unfamiliar he is with the art of the word salad. And how technical and precise the redshirt freshman was when it came to X's and O's. Which his game — not just his words — eventually reflected in a 27-24 loss for No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 10 Miami in his starting debut in a downpour and 91 percent humidity. "We had a three-by-one set with two ends to the field," Carr said of a quasi- miraculous 7-yard strike to redshirt freshman Micah Gilbert that goes down as the first college touchdown pass of his career. "They were playing some sort of middle-field open coverage." History will say, in plain English, that it was a 7-yard pass. But both Carr, in eluding a relentless rush, and the ball traveled much farther. "I was like, 'Throw it away. Throw it away,'" Irish head coach Marcus Free- man offered of his vantage point. "And then, 'Oh. Great job.'" And given the context of what Carr was facing in Miami's defense and how his performance ratcheted up in both poise and performance throughout the night, great might not be an overstate- ment. That is, if it's the steppingstone Freeman perceives it to be and not the leading edge of a long plateau. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound grandson of former Michigan head football coach Lloyd Carr threw for 221 yards on 19- of-30 accuracy with 2 touchdowns and an interception. That's a pass efficiency rating of 140.5, less than a point less than Miami sixth-year senior quarter- back and Georgia transfer Carson Beck fashioned against the Irish (141.4) and slightly higher than Notre Dame's 2024 starter, Riley Leonard, concocted over a 16-game season (139.6). "He's a game ball player," Irish red- shirt senior safety Jalen Stroman said. "He's going to go make plays. He's going to do what he has to do to go make plays. He's going to compete at any aspect, any time of the game." Carr was at his best in the fourth quarter, when he helped the Irish rally to tie the game at 24-24 with 3:21 left in regulation with a 17-3 scoring burst. The game-tying score came on one of his 11 rushes, this one a 7-yard spring up the middle on a quarterback draw. Miami untied the score with a Carter Davis 47-yard field goal. Even though Carr, under heavy du- ress, couldn't produce a storybook fin- ish in the ensuing 64 seconds, he did likely show Freeman and offensive co- ordinator Mike Denbrock enough to give him more pages from the playbook next game, against Texas A&M Sept. 13, and a more aggressive game plan that fits Carr's skill set more than his inexperi- ence. Including a little ad-libbing, like on the touchdown to Gilbert. "Those are plays — like, we don't draw them up like that," Freeman said. "But those are plays that CJ Carr can make. He made a good amount of them tonight. He made some mistakes, like any first-time quarterback will make, but his ceiling is extremely high, and his future is bright." — Eric Hansen NOTRE DAME NEEDS MORE FROM RUNNING GAME Three players finished with more carries versus Miami than Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love. Two Miami running backs, Mark Fletcher Jr. and CharMar Brown, re- corded 15 rushing attempts each in the 27-24 victory for the Hurricanes. Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr logged 11 carries, which included 3 sacks. Then came Love, an Associated Press Preseason All-American, with 10 car- ries for just 33 yards. Fellow running back Jadarian Price finished the game as Notre Dame's lead- ing rusher with 45 yards on 6 carries, which included a 30-yard run. The Irish MIAMI GAME NOTES BY ERIC HANSEN AND TYLER JAMES In his first career start, Carr compiled a pass efficiency rating of 140.5 — better than what Notre Dame's 2024 starter, Riley Leonard, had over a 16-game season (139.6). PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP