Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 SEPT. 19, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED C J Carr is, in the words of quarter- backs coach Gino Guidugli, "ag- gressive by nature." That's why Notre Dame absolutely loved his per- formance in Week 1 against Wisconsin, which did everything it could to turn his aggressiveness against him. "They were just closing the middle of the field, and then their corners were playing really high," Guidugli said. "The challenge to CJ this week was like, 'Hey, don't get impatient and force the ball where it doesn't need to go.'" Because Wisconsin played that cov- erage, the only downfield shot Carr could reliably take was the deep in-cut, or "dig." And he did that twice to senior wide receiver Jordan Faison and once more to junior wide receiver Micah Gil- bert. He could try to test the seams, but the windows would have been tight. Oth- erwise, Carr had one play: check it down. On the first of three extended touch- down drives, Carr found his running backs on a block-and-release route af- ter looking downfield and finding noth- ing to his liking. They gained 11 (An- eyas Williams) and 28 (Nolan James Jr.) yards, respectively. The idea was that if the Badgers even- tually get tired of giving up easy yards to the backs, then Carr could hunt the deep ball. If not, that would be just fine. "If they want to give you that, you just got to keep taking it," Guidugli said. "You can move the ball down the field 10, 12 snaps, pretty good, and Faison's not bad when he catches the [5-yard pass] and turns it into 12 or turns it into 15." Carr finished the game 19-of-29 passing for 239 yards with 2 touch- downs, but his solid if relatively mod- est stat line does not reflect how Notre Dame feels about his outing. "He did exactly what the game plan presented," head coach Marcus Freeman said. "We don't need to force something that's not there." 'MOMENTS OF GROWTH' An incomplete pass in the third quar- ter had Guidugli beaming with joy. It was during that first of three sec- ond-half touchdown drives, and Notre Dame had first-and-goal at the Wis- consin 3-yard line. The Irish ran play action, and it did not work. No one was open, the protection wasn't right and Carr was dead in the water. So, what did he do? He chucked it out of the back of the end zone. Williams scored a 3-yard rushing touchdown on the next play. That's not a decision, Guidugli ex- plained, Carr would have made last season. "That was one of my proudest mo- ments," Guidugli said. "We've got to be situational masters. You threw that ball away. That is growth." Another throwaway stood out to Gui- dugli, too. Notre Dame lined up in an empty set, and Carr saw man-to-man coverage with a linebacker matched up on Williams. Williams is, as Guidugli put it, "one of our running backs who runs like a receiver," so Carr tried to check into a slot fade. The only issue was that Williams didn't register the audible and ran his original route. Not ideal, but it happens. The ques- tion now is: What is Carr going to do about it? He rolled to his left, saw noth- ing available and, again, threw it out of bounds. He took a broken play and turned it into a relatively harmless one. Last season, Carr occasionally turned bad plays into disastrous plays by try- ing to do too much (his goal-line in- terception against Southern Cal comes to mind). In his junior year debut, he eliminated that part of his game. "Those are moments of growth that if we can continue to do that, he's going to be right where he wants to be at the end of the season," Guidugli said. "In my book, those were great plays. Fans might be like, 'Oh, that was a sh--- play.' But in my book, that was a win for us." PUTTING NOTRE DAME IN POSITIONS TO WIN It took Guidugli a second to think of a time Carr checked the offense out of a bad play and into a good one. Eventu- ally, the light bulb went on. "On the Aneyas Williams touchdown at the end, that was a pass play," Gui- dugli said. "If you go watch it, there's a bunch set to the field. They run a route, and he checked the play to a run be- cause, 'Coach, it was zone coverage. We had a great Salem look. I just checked the Salem.'" The film checks out. You can tell, as Guidugli said, because he forgot to alert the wide receivers. "My only word of advice was like, 'Hey, you might want to tell those guys,'" Guidugli said. "But now, it's on tape. People are going to look at that like, what are they doing here? They're run- ning a route. He's handing the ball off." Immediately after the game, Freeman lauded Carr's work at the line of scrim- mage. You'll hear the line "coach on the field" said frequently about the second- year starting quarterback. It sounds cli- ché, because it is, but it becomes real when you see it manifest itself in touchdowns. Not that Carr cares if he gets credit for it. "You got a chance to throw a touch- down," Guidugli said. "You're CJ Carr. Everybody's talking about you for the Heisman. You check it to a run play. That's a pretty unselfish play, you know what I mean?" ✦ CJ Carr finished 19-of-29 passing for 239 yards with 2 touchdowns against Wisconsin, but his solid if relatively modest stat line does not reflect how Notre Dame feels about his outing. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER More Bullish Than You Think Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE