The real CJ Carr, buying or selling Chris Ash and the OL depth highlights Notre Dame biggest questions heading into pivotal stretch

After a 0-2 start to the season, Notre Dame football now sits at 5-2 overall, and still has some control over its own destiny. The blueprint for trying to complete the Fighting Irish goals is very clear: win the last five regular season games, and you are most likely in the College Football Playoffs. That should be all that is on the mind for head coach Marcus Freeman and his team, to control what they can control.  

This week feels like the perfect time for a bye for the Irish, allowing the team to get as healthy as possible, refocus, and prepare for the final stretch of the season. As analysts and fans, all we can do is evaluate this team for what it is today. This Notre Dame team has a clear identity at this point, but there are still going to be some questions to answer heading down the stretch. 

Those questions center around the version of CJ Carr we can expect for the remainder of the season, what to really make of defensive coordinator Chris Ash, and how the Irish offensive line will be able to stabilize itself after some more injuries. All those storylines will be fascinating to watch and evaluate. 

Who is the real CJ Carr? 

After showing a ton of promise during the first two games of the season against Miami and Texas A&M, the redshirt freshman quarterback was very good for the next five contests. Carr was so good in spurts that several analysts hyped him up as a future first rounder. While that may end up being true, it did feel very premature. 

Carr is now coming off his worst performance of the season last week against the USC Trojans, and it does cloud his outlook slightly for the final five games of the season. Are we going to see the stellar version of Carr heading toward a potential playoff run, or is it going to be up and down like you’d expect from a redshirt freshman? 

The answer to that question could determine whether this team is able to make some noise in the postseason. 

Buying or selling Chris Ash 

Perhaps I was a bit too hard on Coach Ash after a struggling start to the season, or perhaps not. After the first three games of the year, it looked like Coach Freeman may have made a disastrous hire. Since the second half of the Arkansas game, however, this has looked like a much better defensive group. They appear to be playing a lot freer and more aggressive, similarly to what we saw under Al Golden the last couple of years. 

Without a ton of great offenses left on the schedule for Notre Dame, we probably won’t get a great indication about whether that Ash skepticism was too harsh or not. That context will only be gained if the team does make the playoffs. For now, we have to just hope that the Irish defense passes the eye test over the last five games. It certainly has looked better, but a bigger sample size is still needed. 

I tend to think (no intel here) that Freeman laid down some instructions on how the defense would be run. Whether that is true or not, you have to give a hat tip to Ash for making some much needed changes. 

Can this Notre Dame offensive line stabilize? 

In back-to-back weeks, Notre Dame has lost a starting offensive lineman. Joe Otting did a tremendous job filling in for the injured Ashton Craig, but now this unit must find a way to replace starting left guard Billy Schrauth, at least for the time being. That’s the challenge for offensive line coach Joe Rudolph right now. 

The expectation is that Sullivan Absher takes over for Schrauth until he returns in a few weeks. At 6-8 and 326 pounds, the redshirt sophomore certainly has the raw size and power to fill in admirably. How healthy this line remains will be essential for the team to reach its potential. If they have a big downslide, the offense could be in some trouble.