Shockwaves shot through the college football recruiting world today when five-star quarterback CJ Carr announced for the Irish. The 6’3″, 190 pound Michigander is a huge win for Tommy Rees and Notre Dame not just because of his talent – at #20 overall in the 2024 247 Composite, he’s the highest ranked QB to pledge to the Irish since Dayne Crist in 2008 – but because of his bloodlines. If you thought his name sounds familiar, you’re right; he’s the grandson of none other than Lloyd Carr himself, Michigan’s last (half) national championship winning coach. That connection of course led a lot of people to pencil him into Michigan’s 2024 class a long time ago, and reasonably so. Rees refused to be outworked in building a relationship with CJ though, and it paid off in a big way today.
Carr has visited Notre Dame numerous times, most notably last year’s Irish Invasion (where he earned his offer), the USC game last October, spring practice in April, and this year’s Irish Invasion camp. This brief exchange from Invasion this past weekend seems, in hindsight, laden with significance:
#NotreDame head coach Marcus Freeman all smiles linking up quickly with five-star quarterback CJ Carr on Sunday at the #IrishInvasion.https://t.co/3lISmoUafP@247Sports pic.twitter.com/ojMTpQ3y0u
— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) June 6, 2022
As he walks away, Freeman seems to wear the expression of a man who knows. He knows how you can tell which wallet in that bag is his, and he knows who his 2024 QB is.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 5 star (.9873 rating), #20 overall, #5 QB, #1 in MI
On3 Consensus — 4 star (93.33 rating), #23 overall, #5 QB, #1 in MI
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #50 overall, #6 QB, #1 in MI
On3 — 4 star (93 rating), #31 overall, #4 QB, #1 in MI
Rivals — 4 star (6.0 rating), #22 overall, #3 QB, #1 in MI
ESPN — Not evaluated (lol)
Friend of the Stripes Jamie Uyeyama does the recruit evaluations for ISD, and we trust his evals as much as anyone’s. So while the 247 Composite and the On3 Consensus don’t factor in ISD evals, we put a lot of weight on them ourselves.
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (95 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame and Michigan, Carr holds offers from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Michigan State, Penn State, and Wisconsin, among many others.
Highlights
I can’t believe this is sophomore film… I’m on record as being a fan of Drew Pyne’s moxie and as believing that Angeli is likely better than a lot of Irish fans think he is, but even so, Carr makes throws here as a 15 year old that maybe Tyler Buchner can make, and that’s about it among the current Irish quarterbacks. There were at least a half dozen plays that elicited a spoken “wow” from me as I went through this reel, starting right from the first play. Carr throws a really nice ball, with tight spiral after tight spiral no matter the length or direction of the throw; it can get a little wobbly when he throws on the run, but even then his throws are on the money. He does a good job of being steady in the pocket and delivering a confident throw when the opening is there, even if it means he’s going to get hit (again, first play).
When he does move, either by design or on a scramble, he moves very well and shows a nice knack for evading pressure. Even when he’s forced to scramble he does an excellent job of keeping his eyes downfield and has the arm strength and sound mechanics to deliver strikes on the run. The only thing I can really see that needs any kind of real work is that he’s not using his eyes to move the safety around – at least I don’t think he is aside from maybe one play, it’s a little hard to tell on these videos. But that’s super duper nitpicky for a high school sophomore, and given the way he talks about the mental side of the game definitely something I expect him to improve in short order.
Sophomore film.
Impact
I’m not sure there’s a bigger fool’s errand in sports than trying to project a modern day college quarterback depth chart, but hey, this is what they pay us for. (Wait, I’m not getting paid for this? Ah, crap…) Beyond the mercurial nature of the position, what complicates things further is the Irish somewhat unexpectedly don’t have a 2023 signal caller committed yet. So the short version is that I really have no idea what to expect in the near term, but I do feel confident in saying that Carr has all the tools to be an elite college quarterback, multi-year starter, and perhaps (running away with myself here) a high draft pick. He looks that good. In fact he kind of reminds me of Jimmy Clausen in a lot of ways, but a little more physically developed at the same stage and way more mobile. Clausen, remember, put up one of the most prolific passing seasons in Notre Dame history and was drafted midway through the second round. So.
Welcome to, and I cannot stress this enough, the Irish family, CJ!
Excellent for the Irish, and for Michigan, well
Now we just need to get him some top-notch weapons to do some serious damage both in the 2023 and the 2024 class.
2023 right now is looking like James (who has now dropped out of the composite top 100 – 117), Greathouse (113), and Flores (186). There is not quite that ultra-elite guy but that’s pretty darn good start to fixing WR recruiting in getting 3 top 100-200 guys. Even if then we also add apparently underrated Hanafin to the mix. [For comparison, Styles (115) and Colzie (102) were similarly rated.]
Who are we in with for 2024?
Seems like Cam Williams (143) really likes us. But it’d be great to get a top 100 or even top 50 kind of guy – especially with Carr on board so early and I presume would be dedicated to recruiting for ND pretty hard the whole time. What an advantage that will be.
James dropped out of the top 100 when 247 plugged the On3 rankings into the 247 Composite – On3 has him ranked absurdly low.
Will be interesting to see if Carr will be back on campus this weekend. I think we’re in good shape with Cam Williams and Mylan Graham (about to blow up). Very much in play for 5* Ryan Wingo out of St. Louis and at least on the radar for 5* Micah Hudson out of Texas, who really likes Stuckey.
O interesting. I hadn’t seen that 247 is now including On3 rankings in their composite.
Wingo or Hudson would clearly be a game-changer for ND to get that kind of skill-position player.
Yea, it would make sense that Carr would try to get back to campus for these big recruiting weekends. Hopefully he’s able to make it.
I believe rivals dropped james like 150 spots or something in their recent uodates rankings as well because, um, I guess i’m not sure.
Not to go all tin hat, but… Mike Farrell runs the Rivals network. He’s a BC alum and one of the most diehard ND haters in existence (which we heard once off the record from someone on the beat). For the most part I roll my eyes at the “dropped because he committed to ND” stuff, but sometimes with Rivals it has a better chance of being true.
Just saw that Sampson mention that Carr will in fact be back this weekend to help recruit.
This is amazing. I love how pro ND he is. He talked about doing some recruiting for his class. I don’t know what this means for us getting Dante Moore. I wish he would give us some positive indication that he is leaning Irish.
Moore is not coming to Notre Dame in either of the next 2 weekends, which are big recruiting weekends. And sniffing around the big NIL schools lately, which doesn’t feel good. Might mean nothing though, he’s been tough to read and clearly has a good relationship established with the coaches so who knows.
Pete Sampson said as of today the plan was not for Carr to reclassify*, so unless that happens, I don’t see why this changes much for Moore. 5-star QB’s who go to big schools pretty much understand there are usually high recruits in front and behind of them.
*Which I think is a good thing to not try to move up a class. When’s the last time a kid reclassified and it ended up working out for him immediately? The batting average on that move has to be very low based on the most notable cases, anyways.
As I was reading your comment, I wondered would ND even allow him to reclassify? It has to tougher to do at ND than other places. Secondly, would Carr or ND actually be better off, in the long run, with him arriving a year early and a year less developed ? Like you said, I’m not so sure it would be for the best.
According to Sampson the process itself sounds possible. He wrote re-classifying is “something the university appears willing to consider with the football program”. He also still said it was unlikely, the hurdles would be high but noted that “Notre Dame has adapted its admissions processes before to accommodate” changes in college football.
Doesn’t sound like anyone is pushing for it at the moment in this case, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it happens one day at ND for someone.
Sampson added today that Carr is keeping his options open by taking some additional online classes and that Carr is old for his class (he turned 17 in May as a soph) but the plan is still to play two more high school seasons before enrolling early mid-year.
Did I read Carr is older than Moore?
Not sure how old Moore is but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were pretty close in age since being 17 before your junior year is as old as one can get in a particular class. Most are 17 entering their senior year. Though of course turning 18 at the end of senior year would make one on the younger end for your class.
Moore apparently turned 17 a few weeks ago and Carr turned 17 last month according to Pete Sampson’s article. So Carr is probably a week or 2 older.
the grandson of michigan’s last national championship winning coach being coached by an ohio state grad at notre dame
lol
Half-national championship*
Is that better or worse than our 93′ NC ?
Worse. We have a full championship from ’93 and some newspaper jackasses handed the trophy to Mr. Dadgummit accidentally on purpose.
’97 Michigan would’ve been destroyed by that Nebraska team, and they and everyone else know it. We, for reference, beat that Florida State team.
In ’97 Nebraska beat end of season #7 Kansas State by 30 and end of season #8 Tennessee by 25. Tennessee was #3 coming into the Orange Bowl and fell that far because of how badly they were beaten. The Huskers had only two of 13 games with a single score margin. Michigan, in contrast, had four single score wins and only one end-of-season top ten win – a 20-14 victory over #9 Ohio State.
As I’ve noted here before, nothing animates me quite so much as an opportunity to express some Michigan hate.
And these are reasons that we should appreciate the BCS and now the playoff. These kind of things can’t happen anymore.
Michigan did have one end-of-season top 10 win, but just for pedantry’s sake, it was 21-16 over #9 Washington State in the Rose Bowl. (Nebraska, for comparison, demolished then-#3 Tennessee 42-17 in the Orange Bowl, and it was really 42-9 because UT scored a garbage-time TD in the literal final minute.) Ohio State fell to #12 in the final poll after FSU crushed them in the Sugar Bowl.
UM’s only other ranked win that year was #16 Penn State. They also played 7 home games and 4 road games and barely escaped Bob Davie’s terrible first Notre Dame team. Real murderer’s row. Nebraska ended the year with wins over aforementioned Tennessee, #8 Kansas State, #18 Washington, #20 Texas A&M (a conference championship game, which Michigan didn’t have, oh the scandal!) and #23 Missouri.
Brady Hoke probably has some 1-star stepnephew-in-law that Michigan can recruit as a backup lineman because he’s a “Michigan Man”.
“He knows how you can tell which wallet in that bag is his”
This made me laugh out loud. Well played, sir.