Welcome to our individual breakdowns of the Notre Dame 2024 recruiting class. In case you missed it, you can read our overview of this Fighting Irish recruiting class, the second full group of the Marcus Freeman era.

Today, we look at quarterback and the ball carriers in the backfield.

As a reminder, here’s our standard grading scale for this exercise:

95-100: Truly elite prospect with All-American potential
90-94: Multi-year starter with All-conference level potential
85-89: Eventual starter with chance to play as underclassman
80-84: Raw prospect with decent potential but a couple years away from impact
75-79: Likely a backup
70-74: Reach by the coaching staff

QB CJ Carr

Eric: 96

I’m pretty much all in on Carr as an elite quarterback prospect for this cycle. He’s typically thought of as the 5th or 6th best QB for 2024 and I’d put him closer to 2nd or 3rd. His effortless delivery and accuracy is phenomenal. While not possessing a huge cannon his ability to throw hard in a quick fashion is tantalizing. He has really good size and moves well in the pocket, too. God willing, he will become a great player at Notre Dame. He ticks so many boxes athletically and mentally that it’ll be a bummer if he’s not a future star.

Tyler: 94

He possesses every trait you’d want in your quarterback. So natural throwing the football, polished, accurate, athletic enough to tuck it and run if he has to. Would not be shocked to see him to put some serious pressure on the older quarterbacks that will be battling it out for the starting spot in 2025.

RB Aneyas Williams

Eric: 91

While not real tall in stature, Williams is a grown man who looks like he has a wife and 2 kids at home. Physically, he’ll be ready to play immediately. His stocky build doesn’t suggest he’ll break a ton of long runs in college but he can scoot pretty well. Really good elusiveness and stick arm in traffic combination. He’ll definitely be good at picking up extra yardage and have a long career catching passes, as well.

Tyler: 89

His play style reminds me of Kyren Williams. Not to say he’ll be as good as Kyren (few are), but he’s the kind of guy that’ll take what should be a stuffed run and find enough of a crease to get 3 or 4 yards out of it.

RB Kedren Young

Eric: 90

An effortless glider as a runner with a quick juke move in traffic that is brutally effective and keeps defenders off balance. Deceptively strong and does a good job staying on his feet after contact. Kedren has good speed and looks like he should have some homerun ability in college.

Tyler: 91

He’s a load to bring down but he’s more than just a power back. The Audric comparisons came immediately once it became clear Notre Dame was a player for him, but I think he might be a touch more athletic than Audric? And Audric is a pretty dang good athlete, himself.