There are early enrollees and then there’s CJ Carr. The spring semester just got underway at Notre Dame in mid-January, but Carr has been on campus since he arrived to practice with the Irish football team back in December for Sun Bowl practices. Carr donned a red jersey like the rest of the Irish quarterbacks and got his feet wet earlier than the rest of the freshman early enrollees who arrived at Notre Dame last month'
"It was great,” Carr said this week of the bowl prep experience. "I kind of came in here, not even football-wise, but understanding what to do in the locker room. Where you put your stuff. That was a big advantage in itself. Being able to kind of show the freshmen, not that I know everything, but show them the basics of where to go, where to be. That was a huge advantage.”
Carr has already experienced several changes early in his career. He committed to Notre Dame when Tommy Rees was the offensive coordinator and remained committed while Gerad Parker ran the show. Parker has since left to become the head coach at Troy and was replaced by Mike Denbrock, who actually visited Carr while he was still at LSU.
"It kind of shows you what college football is,” Carr said of the coordinator moves. "You never have full confidence in someone staying all four years. I’m just excited to have Coach Denbrock here and looking forward to learning a lot from him. I’m confident he’ll put us in the best position to win.”
The Saline, Mich. native threw for more than 8,100 yards and 78 touchdowns in his high school career. He was always a highly rated prospect, but also found ways to continue to push himself.
"In high school it was mostly I had never won a state championship,” Carr explained. "After my sophomore year, I had never won a playoff game. There’s just those little things that push you every day to continue to get better and better. Now here, I have so much room to improve it’s insane. You think you’re a good player until you get to college and there’s four guys in the room who can do everything you can do. I’m blessed to be in the position I am where I can come into the room with everybody and try and get one day better.”
Carr is now one of four scholarship quarterbacks on the Fighting Irish roster heading into spring practice. The newest addition is Duke transfer Riley Leonard, and the Irish return Sun Bowl starter Steve Angeli and rising sophomore Kenny Minchey.
"We’re in a great quarterback room,” Carr remarked. “We have four guys in there who love to play football. They’re all great guys. We played basketball a few times, the chemistry is great in there. I’m at an advantage, just because I get to learn from all three of them. There’s so much knowledge in all of those QBs ahead of me. I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can from them.
"It’s a blessing, honestly,” Carr continued. "I get to learn from some of the best players in college football: Riley Leonard, you got Steve Angeli, who just came off a great win, and Kenny Minchey too. All three of them have a lot of knowledge. I’m not as much competing with them as I am myself.”
The 6-3, 197-pound freshman graded out as a five-star player on the Irish Breakdown board and he has a bright future ahead of him, but Carr is not in a hurry to try to push his way up the depth chart in his first spring with his new teammates.
"I don’t think I’m worried about depth chart, where I’m at,” said Carr. "The goal is to come into the building every day and get one step better. Amir Carlisle over here has a phrase called 'close the gap.' The goal is to just close the gap every day. I’m not competing against anyone else but myself.”
More must-reads: