Notre Dame football is kicking off spring practice very soon, and it appears that the Fighting Irish will have some talented players showing exactly how good they can be when everything kicks off.
Among the players that had some health issues towards the end of the regular season who will be back and fully healthy is the man some hope will take over the mantle of starting quarterback following Riley Leonard’s departure to the NFL.
CJ Carr is said to be back and will be full go. That’s massive news for the young quarterback and enormous news for the Notre Dame football team, which looks to have a fully open quarterback competition for the first time in several years.
Notre Dame football will have young gun ready to go for spring practice
Irish athletic trainer Rob Hunt broke the news about Carr at a short press conference on Thursday morning that also officially introduced new general manager Mike Martin to the Notre Dame press corps.
Hunt made it clear that Carr will be a full participant in Fighting Irish spring practices after dealing with an elbow injury for much of last fall. That means he’ll be able to go toe-to-toe against veteran quarterbacks Kenny Minchey and Steve Angeli.
Angeli has seemed like the heir apparent for the last few seasons, but the new offense might better favor someone like Minchey, who can carry the ball a bit more. On the other hand, head coach Marcus Freeman hired offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock knowing full well that Leonard was only here for one year and the other QBs in that position group’s room were mostly not as mobile as the former Duke gunslinger.
Carr’s injury was one that had Irish faithful a bit nervous for no other reason than it was one that seemed to hang on for so long. There was some concern that he might in fact, not ready for spring practice.
Those worries are now over and CJ Carr be given every opportunity to take the starting job away from the more veteran quarterbacks doing battle to lead the Notre Dame football team to victory in 2025.