Notre Dame finally got its first win of the season as the Fighting Irish took down Purdue 56-30 on Saturday night. Quarterback CJ Carr had quite the night in his third start of the season. While the freshman quarterback's numbers may not jump off the stat sheet, he still earned a solid grade from Pro Football Focus.
Carr was 10-for-12 for 223 yards and two passing touchdowns and didn't even have to finish the game with such a large lead late. According to PFF, Carr has a 93.4 grade for his performance against Purdue.
That grade is the highest among Notre Dame quarterbacks since the grading system started rating quarterbacks in 2014. For Carr to get that high a rating as a freshman when there are many quarterbacks to have gone through Notre Dame throughout that time is pretty impressive and shows that Marcus Freeman made the right choice in picking between Carr and Kenny Minchey.
Pro Football Focus graded CJ Carr at 93.4 for his performance against Purdue. That's the highest grade by a Notre Dame quarterback since PFF started rating the position in 2014.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) September 21, 2025
What is PFF grading?
Pro Football Focus began grading players for over 10 years and the grades come not just from stats, but from the added production to plays. So, for example, if a quarterback makes an amazing throw and the wide receiver drops the pass, the quarterback is still given a grade for that play.
Each play is graded on a certain system by over 600 part-time and full-time football analysts. When all is said and done and grades are given out, the players are then ranked based on their play.
So even though Carr's stats don't pop off the stat sheet, the plays he did make were good enough to give him a high grade, the highest among Notre Dame quarterbacks ever.