While the four players named Notre Dame captains were not remotely surprising, it turns out there was a bit of history coming out of South Bend. There’s also the rather impressive feat of a sophomore getting one of those appointments, even if CJ Carr is the least surprising sophomore to get the honor.
Wearing the “C” on their jerseys in 2026 are senior linebacker Drayk Bowen, senior safety Adon Shuler, junior quarterback CJ Carr and senior wide receiver Jordan Faison. It's already impressive that Carr is the youngest captain of the quartet, but the two defensive names, Bowen and Shuler, are both two-time captains, making them the 28th and 29th in program history.
While Carr is the only non-senior captain of the group, the quarterback has been a leader since the moment he stepped on campus. He was considered the guy most likely to be “the man” when Riley Leonard finished his one-year tour with the Irish, and he made that official when he beat out Kenny Minchey for the starting job last fall.
Carr then went on to reward the Notre Dame coaching staff’s choice when he threw for 2,741 yards, 24 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. While there have been some who believe there are things he needs to polish in his second year as a starter, he’s also someone who has routinely gotten first-round predictions in the 2027 NFL Draft, with one of the most recent predicting he would go No. 3 overall.
Jordan Faison completes walk-on rise to Notre Dame football captain and top receiver
Faison’s rise to the captainship is notable since he was a walk-on when his Fighting Irish career started. In fact, he was considered more of a lacrosse player than a football player when he first came to South Bend. He won the national championship in men’s lacrosse in 2024, then joined the football team after that season and helped lead it to the College Football Playoff that winter.
After becoming Notre Dame’s No. 1 wide receiver with 49 receptions for 640 yards in 2025, he gave up lacrosse to focus exclusively on football. Clearly, his many decisions in favor of Marcus Freeman’s program have served him well and earned him respect from his coaches and teammates.
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