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The Notre Dame football team has a quarterback competition on its hand this offseason as CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey are the two players battling it out. The Fighting Irish were also expecting to have Steve Angeli be part of the competition, but he recently entered the transfer portal. Now, the battle is down to two, and it's been neck-and-neck so far.
There is a long way to go in the Notre Dame football QB competition as the season won't get underway until late August. This battle will likely go well into fall camp as there hasn't been a lot of separation yet.
“Both, we believe, have the ability to be the starting quarterback,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said, according to an article from ESPN. “Both have done a tremendous job improving through spring practice.”
No matter who ends up winning the starting job, there isn't going to be a lot of experience at the QB position for Notre Dame. CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey haven't played important snaps yet, so that is something to keep in mind as the battle develops.
“Neither of them have played meaningful plays snaps in a game, so when you have a QB competition, you put them in some of those pressure situations before they have to go do it,” Marcus Freeman added. “I love competition, period, so I'm excited for the future of our quarterback room.”
With spring ball wrapped up, the competition is far from over. Notre Dame knows who the options are, and that's where they want to be at this point.
“I don't know that our goal was necessarily to name a starter at the end of the spring, as much as it was to identify, ‘OK, let's get this to a manageable number,' which most people would agree is two, and then allow those guys to battle,” Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “The final decision, obviously, was a very difficult one to make. Who are you going to have a hard conversation with out of that group? Because we can win, in my opinion, with any of those guys.”
The Notre Dame football spring game went down before Steve Angeli hit the portal, so all three QBs competed. Carr had the best outing as he finished with 170 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
CJ Carr was a four-star recruit in the 2024 recruiting class. The Saline, Michigan native was the #6 QB class. Carr is the grandson of Lloyd Carr, who was the head coach of the Michigan football team from 1995-2007. He won a national championship with the Wolverines in 1997.
Kenny Menchey was a four-star recruit in the 2023 recruiting class. He was the #14 QB in the class.
Right now, it feels like Carr has the slight lead over Menchey, but there is a lot of time for that to change. This is going to be a long, exciting QB battle.
