Notre Dame QB battle: CJ Carr still in position to claim ‘neck and neck’ battle for starting job

As the start of the 2025 creeps ever closer, key decisions must be made. Notre Dame still hasn’t named a starting quarterback going into the year.

The Fighting Irish are a potential College Football Playoff team, too, so who ends up under center will be key. There will be a lot to manage.

“Notre Dame, quarterback battle still going on,” said Josh Pate on Josh Pate’s College Football Show on Tuesday night. “I will admit, I thought this would be settled by now. So I was wrong about this, and I am wrong in the sense that I thought in the spring CJ Carr would lock this job down. Now maybe he will. In fact, I think he eventually will. But I don’t know.

“It’s still neck and neck. So it could be Kenny Minchey, it could be CJ Carr. I’m just saying what I hope doesn’t happen here is that thing lingers and no one really grabs the job and they waste what should be a really, really upgraded wide receiver room. So that’s what we’re watching for there.”

Carr is a freshman quarterback, while Minchey is now going into his third year. But there’s very little experience in the bunch. Minchey has thrown only three passes in college at Notre Dame.

The good news? Pate pointed out that whoever wins the job will have an excellent receiving corps to lean on.

“They hit on Will Pauling, a kid out of Wisconsin,” Pate said. “Malachi Fields, out of Virginia. They’ve got a good receiver room, man, like they feel really good about it. I feel really good about it. That plus (Jordan) Faison and (Jaden) Greathouse, who were already there. I mean this is a drastically upgraded wide receiver room.”

Notre Dame has an excellent roster overall under Marcus Freeman, and the schedule, while challenging, is certainly manageable. The playoff expansion makes it easier to get a foothold in the field.

Quarterback play, though, could determine how far Notre Dame makes it. Not just in the regular season, but in the postseason as well.

“There’s a lot to feel good about with Notre Dame. Quarterback battle still going on,” Pate said. “Now, remember, one of the big lies they tell in college football sometimes is, ‘If you’ve got two quarterbacks, you don’t have any.’ Well sometimes that’s a lie. Sometimes it’s true.

“Sometimes it really is that no one’s emerged. I don’t think that’s the case here, and for the record, I’m still calling Carr. I still think CJ Carr will win this job. But until they make an announcement… and there are rumors here and there that we may have an announcement soon. But until they make an announcement, it’s a coin flip.”