BY CURT RALLO
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — No. 6 Notre Dame played it safe with a new starting quarterback on the road in its season-opening loss at then-No. 10 Miami.
It may have cost coach Marcus Freeman more than a victory. He also acknowledged losing some sleep.
So with the Fighting Irish back on their own turf following a bye week, Freeman is ready to make a change — giving CJ Carr a longer leash against No. 16 Texas A&M on Saturday.
“I think we were very intentional about trying to protect the first-time starter early in the game, right?” Freeman said. “I was vocal about giving him easy reads, easy throws. Let’s not just tell him to bomb the ball down the field every play, because he’ll do that if we allow him to. CJ will throw the ball down the field every single play.”
Carr certainly has the arm strength to succeed, and the stat line from his first start — 19 of 30 with 221 yards, two touchdown passes, one TD run and one interception — was solid, not spectacular.
But he did rally the Fighting Irish (0-1) from a 21-7 third-quarter deficit, played well enough to become the first Notre Dame quarterback to throw a TD pass and run for a score in his first career start since Brandon Wimbush in 2017, and after another week of practice appears to have earned more trust from Freeman.
So this week, Notre Dame seems ready to turn Carr loose.
“He showed he’s ready, he’s capable,” Freeman said. “As you saw as the game went on, we were able to take some more shots. I still am a firm believer shots are a response to being able to have positive run plays, right? We have to be able to run the football. But we feel like, listen, CJ can execute the entire game plan, the entire playbook. He’s a special player.”
If Freeman could pinpoint one sequence in which Carr proved himself, it might be his 65-yard completion to Eli Rairdon that set up Notre Dame at the Miami 10-yard line in the fourth quarter. Carr rushed for 3 yards on the next play, then raced 7 yards to the end zone to tie the score at 24 with 3:21 to play.
Miami responded with the go-ahead field goal with 1:04 remaining and Carr was sacked twice on Notre Dame’s final possession.
Still, it showed Freeman that Carr was ready to play on the big stage. It wasn’t just Freeman, either.
Receiver Jaden Greathouse praised Carr’s leadership, noting the key to Notre Dame’s aerial attack is timing and chemistry.
“You get a lot of different things during the game, some things you do expect, some things you don’t expect,” Greathouse said. “And so, you know, every game is an adjustment, and you just kind of have to take it how it comes. CJ can handle that quickly. He just has kind of a knack for feeling out where we’re going to be and where we kind of want the ball, where we’re kind of expecting the ball. That helps us a lot with our run after the catch and things like that.”
But Greathouse knows the Irish offense still needs to be better.
The key, he believes, is running crisper routes and getting better ball placement than they had at Miami, facets that will improve in time.
Running the ball better would help, too. Notre Dame had 28 carries for 93 yards as preseason All-American Jeremiyah Love was limited to 33 yards on 10 carries. And if the Irish need to use Carr’s legs to open up running lanes against Texas A&M, Freeman says he won’t hesitate to give the kid a chance.
After all, Carr has only made one start and everyone in the program understands this offense is still a work in progress.
“A lot of it is just natural things that take a lot of work,” Greathouse said. “Working on our communication. It’s a lot different in the game.”
