Notre Dame names starting quarterback

Challenge everything. The bumpy road. Choose hard.

All Marcus Freeman mantras. And in what arguably (inarguably) is Freeman’s toughest choice to date, No. 6 Notre Dame has named its starting quarterback for the season-opening tilt Aug. 31 at Miami.

Redshirt-freshman CJ Carr was announced Tuesday as the Fighting Irish quarterback. The school posted an image of Carr on its X account (formerly Twitter).

It featured a stylized photo of Carr and said simply "Our starting QB."

Freeman on Sunday said the Notre Dame coaches would need to soon settle on a starter in advance of the team's fifth-straight opening game away from home and with the program set to have a different starting quarterback in its season-starter for the sixth-straight season. He praised both Carr and redshirt-sophomore Kenny Minchey as having elevated each other's play in the camp battle.

"We’ve got to make a decision here soon; I don’t know when we’ll make it, I don’t want to put a timeline on it," said the fourth-year head coach. "But they’ve both been playing really, really well. We’ve got two guys that have been battling all camp, and today was no different. There were some good things and things we’ve got to get improved. 

"But, the best thing I love is that they’ve both gotten better. That’s the whole point with having a competition. Competition can raise the level of the people in the competition and that’s what has happened. Both of those two have really elevated their play, and we’ll make a decision here soon."

The 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound Carr had an excellent spring, a period in which veteran backup Steve Angeli departed the program and was named earlier this week as Syracuse's starting quarterback for Fran Brown.

Minchey, a former Pitt commitment whom Notre Dame nabbed late in the 2023 cycle, had been a steady presence in spring and again in fall camp. He's considered the more mobile of the two and also had limited turnovers in fall camp. Carr opened camp with a three-interception day when Minchey had one; Carr also was said to have thrown two more interceptions in Sunday's annual "jersey scrimmage" inside Notre Dame Stadium.

But Carr has elite arm talent and top-end potential; he's one of Notre Dame's highest-ranked quarterback signees since Brady Quinn. A Saline, Michigan, native, Carr was rated as the No. 2 pro-style passer in the 2024 class per 247Sports.

He missed significant time last fall when he was injured by a teammate in practice but closed spring camp with a dazzling 14-for-19, 170-yard, two-touchdown performance in the Blue-Gold Game.

Now, he'll throw his first-ever collegiate pass in Sunday night primetime against a Miami team that's widely considered the most complete of Mario Cristobal's four Hurricanes squads. Miami also has a new quarterback -- but he's a college veteran. The Canes signed former Georgia standout Carson Beck out of the NCAA Transfer Portal.

Carr will operate behind an offensive line expected to be among college football's best and with multiple returning starters, as well as consensus All-America running back Jeremiyah Love.  

Sources told FootballScoop that the two players were informed of the coaching staff's decision Tuesday morning, with parents alerted to the news around the noon hour.