Notre Dame quarterback race takes surprising turn

Minchey getting the majority of first-team reps might come as a surprise to many fans who thought Carr was expected to run away with the starting job. 

Earlier this month, ESPN's Mark Schlabach named Carr the Irish's "X factor" heading into the season. Given his three interceptions in practice on Thursday, the freshman has much to prove before he can take away the starting gig from Minchey.

Minchey didn't blow anyone away with his play on Thursday either. However, the sophomore might have done enough to continue with the first-team offense until Carr stops creating turnovers.

Minchey might be head coach Marcus Freeman's desired starter for the upcoming season. In May, Freeman told Sampson that the coaching staff was looking to design the third-down offense around Minchey before training camp. 

“I wanted to be like, ‘I like your book and all those things, and thanks for the compliments, but the reason we went for it on fourth down was because of the confidence we had in getting that first down.’” Freeman said via The Athletic.

“And so, I sat with the offense and said, 'OK, Kenny Minchey isn’t the running quarterback that Riley Leonard was — how do we create that confidence in the head coach that we can sequence things on third down, knowing that we’re going to go for it on fourth down?'”

For now, the job is Minchey's to lose.