Young QB CJ Carr has national championship aspirations for Notre Dame football

SOUTH BEND — Tuning in four weeks ago to watch Michigan win the College Football Playoff, CJ Carr couldn’t help but smile.

Already enrolled as Notre Dame football’s quarterback of the future, Carr was back in Saline, Mich., watching at home with his family.

“It was cool,” Carr said late last week at Notre Dame’s indoor practice facility. “My grandpa and my cousins were down there for the game. They were pumped. I was excited for them.”

2024 Notre Dame quarterback commit CJ Carr throws a pass to warm up during practice at the SAC on Dec. 26, 2023, as they prepare for the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl against Oregon State.

Lloyd Carr, the last man to coach the Wolverines to a national title (1997) before Jim Harbaugh delivered on his way back to the NFL, was on hand in Houston. While in town, the elder Carr, 78, was honored with the Bear Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award.

“We could have gone,” CJ Carr said, “but there’s a lot going on.”

Before heading back to campus to go through his first winter conditioning program with the Irish, Carr watched J.J. McCarthy live out the fantasy of any quarterback from the Midwest.

Having met through a mutual trainer, Carr has followed McCarthy’s rise from Chicagoland prospect to Michigan legend. Even after rejecting the hometown Wolverines and charting his own path to a college football career, Carr couldn’t help but pull for McCarthy on the game’s biggest stage.

“It was cool knowing J.J. and kind of growing up with him,” Carr said. “It was cool to see him hoist that trophy up. You kind of put yourself in his (shoes) and try to, I don’t know, visualize that yourself.”

Notre Dame football quarterback CJ Carr rides the Zamboni during the second intermission of the Penn State-Notre Dame NCAA hockey game on Saturday, January 20, 2024, at Compton Family Ice…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/young-qb-cj-carr-national-140755579.html

Author : South Bend Tribune

Publish date : 2024-02-04 14:07:55

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